taxes and government fees, which can be spent on necessities, or non-essentials, or be saved. Distress sale The selling of assets under adverse conditions, e.g., an investor may have to sell securities to cover a margin call. Distressed securities A security of a firm that has declared or is about to declare bankruptcy. In the context of hedge funds, a style of management that focuses on securities of companies that have declared bankruptcy and may be undergoing reorganization. Investment holdings can include bonds as well as stock in these firms. Distributed New Treasury issues in dealers' hands are said to be distributed. Distributing syndicate A syndicate consisting of a number of brokerage firms or investment bankers that work together to sell and disperse a large lot of securities. Distribution Selling a large lot of a security in such a way that the security price is not heavily influenced. Distribution area An established price range in which a stock has been trading for a significant amount of time. See: Accumulation area. Distribution Cost Advantage A source of competitive advantage that depends on the efficient delivery of a product or service to customers. Distribution by coupon Classification of a portfolio'ssecurities according to coupon ratethe interest rate that an issuer promises to pay, expressed as an annual percentage of face value. Distribution by credit quality Classification of a portfolio'ssecurities according to credit rating. Distribution by issuer Classification of a portfolio's holdings by type of issuer or type of instrument. Distribution by maturity An indicator of interest raterisk. In general, the higher the concentration of longer-maturityissues, the more a portfolio'sshare price will fluctuate in response to changes in interest rates. Distribution period The few days between the Board of Directors'declaration of a stock dividend (declaration date) and the date of record, or the date an individual must own shares to be entitled to a dividend. Distribution plan A mutual fund's plan to charge distributioncosts such as advertising to the investors of the fund. Distribution schedule The frequency (monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually) of a mutual fund's scheduled distributions of dividends or capital gains. Distribution stock A small amount of a specific stock that forms part of a larger block of stock that is sold small amount by small amount so as not to disrupt the stock's market price. Distributions Payments from fund or corporate cash flow. May include dividends from earnings, capital gains from sale of portfolio holdings and return of capital. Fund distributions can be made by check or by investing in additional shares. Funds are required to distribute realized capital gains (if any) to shareholders at least once per year if they are not to be taxed by the fund itself. Some corporations offer Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRP). Divergence When two or more averages or indexes fail to show confirming trends. Diversifiable risk Related: Unsystematic risk Diversification Dividing investment funds among a variety of securities with different risk, reward, and correlation statistics so as to minimize unsystematic risk. Diversified investment company An investment vehicle such as a mutual fund that invests in an assortment