Guide to Analysing Companies

Trust
There are two main meanings.
1 A combination of companies that act to create a monopoly
in restraint of competition and free trade. The practice was out-
lawed at the beginning of the 20th century, hence the term trust
busters. Starting with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, the
US Congress has taken repeated steps since then to stamp out
monopolies, price fixing and other forms of restraint of trade.
Other countries have largely taken their lead from the United
States.
2 A fiduciary relationship in which somebody called a trustee
holds title to assets for the benefit of another person, called the
beneficiary.
Trustee
A person who is entrusted with property belonging to some-
body else. The purest form of trustee, one who has absolutely
no beneficial interest in the property, is called a naked trustee. A
trustee can act in many different roles:
 as the person charged with disposing of a dead person’s
property according to a will;
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TRUSTEE
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 as the person charged with looking after the interests of a
minor until he or she comes of age, or an adult;
 as the person charged with looking after money donated
to a charity;
 even, as in the case of The Economist, a person charged
with looking after the editorial integrity and
independence of a newspaper or magazine. 
Turn
The difference between the cost of funds to a financial institu-
tion and the return it can get from using those funds. For a
bank, this is the difference between the average rate of in-
terest on its deposits and the average rate of interest on its
loans.
Two-way market
A market which is as free for buyers as it is for sellers. With se-
curities, a two-way market is one in which brokers are as
willing to sell a security at its quoted selling price as they are to
buy it at its quoted buying price.
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