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margin Definition

mar·gin (mär′jən)

noun

  1. a border, edge, or brink the margin of the pond
  2. the blank space around the printed or written area on a page or sheet
  3. a limit to what is desirable or possible
    1. an amount of money, supplies, etc. reserved or allowed beyond what is needed; extra amount for contingencies or emergencies
    2. provision for increase, addition, or advance
  5. the amount by which something is higher or lower to win by a wide margin
  6. Business, Finance
    1. the difference between the cost and the selling price of goods produced, sold, etc.
    2. money or collateral deposited with a broker or other lender, either to meet legal requirements or to insure against loss on contracts, as to buy stocks or commodities which have been financed with funds provided by the lender
    3. a customer's equity if his or her account is closed at the prevailing prices
    4. the difference between the face value of a loan and the market value of the collateral put up to secure it
  7. Econ. the minimum return, below which activities are not profitable enough to be continued
  8. Psychol. the fringe of consciousness

Etymology: ME margine < L margo (gen. marginis): see mark

transitive verb

  1. to provide with a margin or border; be a margin to; border
  2. to enter, place, or summarize in the margin of a page or sheet
  3. Business, Finance
    1. ☆ to deposit a margin upon
    2. to hold by depositing or adding to a margin upon
    3. to purchase (securities) on margin

Etymology: L marginare

margin Synonyms

margin

n.

border, edge, perimeter; see boundary, edge 1, rim. See syn. study at rim.

margin Finance Definition
The amount of money (or the value of assets) deposited by a customer to a broker in order to qualify for a loan to trade securities, or for a margin loan. Similar to collateral, margin may also be deposited by a broker with a clearing member of a futures exchange. If conditions become volatile in the futures market, margin requirements are raised. A clearing member of a futures exchange is also required to pay margin to the clearinghouse.

A margin is not a partial payment on a purchase. At the end of each trading day, profits and losses on open positions are calculated (using the mark-to-market process). If an investor has lost money and his or her margin account is therefore below minimum balance requirements, the broker makes a margin call to inform the investor that he or she needs to deposit additional funds in the account. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulates margins charged on investment accounts used to purchase stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments.

margin Law Definition

n

  1. The difference between the amount of a loan and the market value of the collateral securing it.
  2. Cash or other collateral given or paid to a stockbroker to secure him or her against losses incurred extending credit to an investor.
  3. The investor’s equity in stocks purchased by a broker extending credit to the investor.
margin Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • squeeze: Firms are seeing profit margins squeezed and they are responding by seeking ways to reduce their cost base.
  • erode: Even the highest residues detected in the Working Party's surveillance, of phorate and other OPs, would not erode safety margins.
  • operate: The board believes that operating margins will run significantly short of last year's level for much of 2005.

Adjective modifier

  • gross: Gross margin is the value of sales less the cost of goods sold.
  • continental: The most important are those associated with tidal oscillations along continental margins.
  • winning: Ahead of all this, Lindley scored a fine victory, extending his winning margin to almost seven seconds with a classy display.
  • narrow: In a tense finish in the gathering gloom it was Cheshire who finally came out on top by the narrow margin of 4 runs.
  • left-hand: OK, so I can do all those things in the left-hand margin, but what's special about the way I do them?
  • arable: As in arable field margins, the aim is to maintain open conditions free from competition with other plants.

Modifies a noun

  • squeeze: On the key issue of the alleged margin squeeze against rivals we found BSkyB to be around the borderline of anti-competitive behavior.

Noun used with modifier

  • profit: Their profit margins are likely to come under intense pressure leading to the possible closure of smaller chemists in rural areas.
  • operating: Annual CRM cost synergies will drive further medium term growth in British Gas operating margins.
  • resection: This showed that resection margins 1cm did not influence survival.
  • gingival: Palpate the apex of the root by following the root juga ( lateral canine eminence ) from the gingival margin.
  • plateau: The plateaux margins are typically characterized slope failures that range from large rotational landslides to individual blockfalls.
  • eyelid: On examination, the eyelid margins are thickened, slightly inflamed and crusty.

Preposition: of

  • appreciation: States are allowed 'a margin of appreciation ' in imposing restrictions on trade union rights.
  • victory: The margin of victory was harsh but the home side got an ovation at the end from The Walks faithful.
  • error: They were also within a 1/2 % point margin of error in their 2000 final poll.

Preposition: for

  • error: So if we get Chinese demand wrong and Iraqi supply wrong, we find we have no margin for error left.
margin Quotes

To divide a cube into two other cubes, a fourth power or in general any power whatever into two powers of the same denominationabovethesecond isimpossible, and Ihave assuredly found anadmirable proof of this, but the margin is too narrow to contain it.

—Fermat, Pierre de

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

—Wordsworth,William

I think you will like them, when you shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.

—Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

Launch your vessel, And crowd your canvas, And, ere it vanishes Over the margin, After it, follow it, FollowThe Gleam.

—Tennyson

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, council, governments, Myself not least, but honoured of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windyTroy. I am part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life.

—Tennyson