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UNDER-FUNDED PENSION PLAN
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A pension plan whose liabilities exceed its assets.
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UNDERWRITING
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The procedure by which an underwriting group brings a new security issue to the investing public in an offering.
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UNDERWRITING GROUP
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A group of investment banks which jointly underwrite and distribute a new security offering. Also called underwriting group or purchase group or banking syndicate or investment banking syndicate or distributing syndicate.
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UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
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The number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force. Since the rate depends on the size of the labour force, even if new jobs are created, it is possible for the rate to remain unchanged or even increase if the labour force grows.
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UNIT
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Two or more corporate securities (such as preferred shares and warrants) offered to the public for sale at a single, combined price.
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UNIT INVESTMENT TRUST
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A registered investment company which purchases a fixed, unmanaged portfolio of incomeproducing securities and then sells shares in the trust to investors. Also called fixed investment trust or participating trust or unit trust.
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UNIT LABOUR COST OR COST PERFORMANCE
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A measure of competitiveness that compares total wages to total output. Unit labour costs show how much output an economy gets relative to the wages paid. If wages rise but productivity rises faster, unit labour costs fall and vice versa. Unit labour costs show the combined effect of changes in productivity and wages on the cost of production. Higher relative unit labour costs make it harder to be competitive. To measure the unit labour costs of the Canadian economy, one would divide Canada's total labour income by its real gross domestic product.
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UNREALIZED PROFIT
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This is a profit which has been made but not yet realized, through a transaction such as a stock which has risen in value but is still being held in a portfolio. Also called unrealized gain, paper gain or book profit.
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UNREALIZED LOSS
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This is a loss which has occurred but has not yet been realized, through a transaction such as a stock which has fallen in value but is still being held in an account or portfolio. Also called paper loss or book loss.
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UNSYSTEMATIC RISK
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The risk of a price change due to the unique circumstances of a specific security, as opposed to the market as a whole. This type of risk can be virtually eliminated from a portfolio through the process of diversifying the holdings of the portfolio.
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UP CAPTURE RATIO
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This indicates how well a fund performs against the benchmark when the benchmark moves higher. This ratio is a measurement of the investment's compounded return when the benchmark moves up, divided by the benchmark's compounded return over the same period of time. The greater the value, the better. For example, an investment fund would have an up capture ratio of 2.0 if over a 3 year period the investment fund’s benchmark was up 10% while the investment fund was up 20%.
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