Glossary
| Hedging | The practice of offsetting the price risk in an existing security by the purchase or sale of a derivative security, such as an option or futures contract. |
| Hidden Quantity | The quantity which the broker does not wish to reveal on the Market by Order Book. |
| Holder | The purchaser of a call or a put option. |
| Holding Company | A corporation that owns the securities of another company, usually with voting control. |
| Horizontal Merger | A merger involving two or more firms in the same industry that are both at the same stage in the production cycle; that is, two or more competitors. |
| Hostile Takeover | A takeover of a company (usually made by an open tender offer to shareholders) against the wishes of the current management and the Board of Directors by an acquiring company or raider. |
| House Call | Notification by a brokerage house that a customer's margin account is below the minimum maintenance level. The client must provide more cash or equity, or the account will be liquidated. |
| Hung Up | Used to describe the position of an investor whose stocks or bonds have dropped in value below their original purchase price. |
| Hypothecation | Pledging of securities to brokers as collateral for loans made to purchase securities or to cover short sales. |
