The Letter G

Gaijin-non-Japanese investor in Japan.

Gap Up(or Down)-this usually happens when there is good news or in the case of Gap Down, bad news that is released after the close or before the open. Gap up will show as a broken line on a chart. It looks wrong but it looks that way because the stock jumped so much from the prior day's closing price that in fact to connect the lines would be wrong. This happens when there is alot more buy orders than sell orders at the open.

Gift tax-there is a lot of confusion about this tax. Basically, all gifts of $11,000(this was raised from $10K in 2002, the first change in the dollar amount in 20 years)or less (to one person/per year) are free of the federal gift tax. On amounts over $11,000, the person who receives the gift doesn’t pay any tax. Instead of paying current taxes the donor would have his estate tax exemption reduced by the amount that is over $11,000 but any taxes would be not be due until death. Currently, the estate exemption is $675,000. Estates that are lower than this amount do not pay any federal estate taxes. This exemption is scheduled to be increased each year until it reaches three and a half million dollars in 2009. It is scheduled to be dropped completely in 2010. However, President Bush wants to abolish the estate tax entirely much earlier. It is also important to note that gifts between spouses are free from the gift tax and that there is no limit to the number of people that someone can give a $11,000 gift in a year. Also note that spouses can gift-split which means that the two of them can each give $11,000 to one person for a total of $22,000.

Ginnie Mae-nickname for the government national mortgage association and the securities guaranteed by that agency.

Gorilla-(AKA 800-pound gorilla) this is a company that started as an emerging leader in its industry. They are considered a gorilla once they dominate their core business. Think of Intel and Cisco. These stocks usually are richly valued compared to their competitors. However, investors have done well by adding to their positions once they identify a gorilla rather than looking for a value play in the same industry.

Updated 1/13/02