Value manager - A manager who seeks to buy stocks that are at a discount to their "fair value" and sell them at or in excess of that value. Also called contrarians because they see value where many other market participants do not.

Variable life - A whole life insurance policy that provides a death benefit that depends on the market value of the insured's portfolio at the time of the death. Typically the company invests premiums in common stocks, and hence variable life policies are referred to as equity-linked policies.

Variance - A measure of dispersion of a set of data points around their mean value.

Variance minimization approach to tracking - An approach to bond indexing that uses historical data to estimate the variance of the tracking error.

Variation margin - An additional required deposit to bring an investor's equity account up to the initial margin level when the balance falls below the maintenance margin requirement.

Venture capital - An investment in a start-up business that is perceived to have excellent growth prospects but does not have access to capital markets.

Vertical analysis - The process of dividing each expense item in the income statement of a given year by net sales to identify expense items that rise faster or slower than a change in sales.

Volume - The number of transactions in a contract made during a specified period of time.

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