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Financial Glossary

Q ratio or Tobin's Q ratio

Market value of a firm's assets divided by replacement value of the firm's assets.

Quadratic programming

Variant of linear programming whereby the equations are quadratic rather than linear.

Quality option

Also called the swap option, the seller's choice of deliverables in Treasury Bond and Treasury note futures contract. Related: cheapest to deliver issue

Quality spread

Also called credit spread, the spread between Treasury securities and non-Treasury securities that are identical in all respects except for quality rating. For instance, the difference between yields on Treasuries and those on single A-rated industrial bonds.

Quantos

Currency options with a guaranteed exchange rate that enable buyers who like the asset, German bonds for example, but not the asset's pricing currency, to arrange to be paid in a different currency for a fee.

Quanto swap

See: differential swap.

Quick assets

Current assets minus inventories.

Quick ratio

Indicator of a company's financial strength (or weakness). Calculated by taking current assets less inventories, divided by current liabilities. This ratio provides information regarding the firm's liquidity and ability to meet its obligations. Also called the Acid Test ratio.

Quotation

The bid and offered prices a dealer is willing to buy or sell at.