Par value has several meanings depending on the context, whether used in the equities market, or in the bond markets, and partially also dependent on where in the world the par value term is used. A stock market is a market for the trading of publicly held company stock and associated financial instruments (including stock options, convertibles and stock index futures). ... The bond market refers to people and entities involved in buying and selling of bonds and the quantity and prices of those transactions over time. ...

Equities

In classic 1920's terminology, especially prior to the Crash of 1929, par value was used as slang for when the price of any stock was selling at $100 per share, or for any even multiple of $100/share, such as $200/share, $300/share, etc. As noted by famed stock and commodity speculator Jesse Livermore, most speculative stocks typically rise an unusually large amount shortly after passing through par values, rising in price slowly from $95/share to $96/share to ... to $100/share, at which point human psychology typically pushes the price much higher in a very short time frame after passing par value. This phenomenon also recurrs for every increase of an even $100 in stock price, solely due to human psychology, which ultimately tends to dominate the market over even robot sellers which are programmed by humans. Black Thursday can mean the Wall Street Crash 1929 Black World Wide Web protest, a 1996 protest against the Communications Decency Act in the United States. ... See stock (disambiguation) for other meanings of the term stock A stock, also referred to as a share, is commonly a share of ownership in a corporation. ... Jesse Lauriston Livermore Jesse Lauriston Livermore (1877-1940) was a notable early 20th century trader. ...

Bonds

In the US bond markets, par value is when the price dollars is equal to the face value. A US Treasury note is denominated in units of $1,000, but has its price quoted by common convention in terms of moving the decimal point to the left by one position. A US Treasury note selling at par value would thus be quoted as 100:00, where the two digits to the right of the colon are priced in thirty-seconds of a dollar (i.e., 3.125 cents.) A par value price of 100:00 would thus equate to a price of a note or bond selling at face value of $1000 per US Treasury note. A price of 75:31, on the other hand, would thus equate to a note or bond quoted at a price of (75 + 31/32) x 10, or $759.6875, selling at an obvious discount from its par value of 100:00 for a face value paid upon maturity of the note or bond of $1,000. The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ... Treasury Securities are bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, and sold by the Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC. They are the debt finance instruments of the Federal government, and are often referred to as treasuries. ... The dollar (represented by the dollar sign: $) is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions. ...

Only the market for US Treasury securities still prices using thirty-seconds of a dollar. All other markets use decimal notation.

The practice of pricing in price per hundreds largely grew out of the practice of pricing British government bonds, which were (and still are today) denominated in units of 100 Pounds Sterling. These notes, originally sold in physical form having gilt-edges and therefore known as Gilts, are priced in similar form as US debt instruments, but are priced relative to their face value of 100 pounds Sterling. There is no subsequent shift of the decimal point applied in the pricing of such debt instruments as in the US. In the UK bond markets, par value is when the price per 100 Pounds Sterling note or bond is equal to the face value. A government bond is a bond issued by a national government denominated in the countrys own currency. ... The pound sterling, which strictly speaking refers to basic currency unit of sterling, now the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom (UK). ... A gilt is any of the following: A thin covering of gold. ... A gilt is any of the following: A thin covering of gold. ...

A par value of 100.00 for a note or bond means only that the note or bond is selling for the face value paid upon maturity of the note or bond. It can (and does) have different absolute values per Note or Bond depending on the conventions of the particular market and country in which such a par value is quoted.

External links

• riskglossary.com has a detailed article on par values.