purchasing power

Purchasing power

The amount of credit available for securities trading in a margin account, after taking margin requirements into consideration.

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purchasing power

1. Consumer ability to purchase goods and services. Increased purchasing power represents proportionately larger increases in income than increases in the cost of goods and services.

2. The ability to purchase goods and services with a fixed amount of money. Within this narrower application, purchasing power is inversely related to the consumer price index. Increased purchasing power is a signal that future increases in economic activity are likely.

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Purchasing Power

1. The value of a currency expressed as the amount of goods or services one unit of the currency can buy. Purchasing power is important to inflation, as the higher an inflation rate is, the fewer goods and services one unit of a currency can buy. To measure purchasing power, one must compare it with an objective standard; that is, one might compare how much one dollar can buy now versus how much it could buy 10 year ago. See also: CPI, Purchasing power parity.

2. The dollar amount of securities one can buy on a margin account. Different jurisdictions have different rules on how to measure purchasing power.