Basis

. Banking: Number of days (usually 360 or 365) in a year, used in computing interest earned on a deposit or payable on a loan.

2. Foreign exchange trading: Adjustment made in the forward delivery price of different currencies to compensate for differences in interest rates.

3. Futures trading: Difference between the price of a commodity or asset in the cash market (‘spot price’) and its price in the futures market. Positive difference indicates a futures discount (‘backwardation’), negative difference indicates futures premium (‘contango’).

4. Securities trading: Purchase price of a security, less commissions and other expenses, used in computing capital gain or loss when the security is sold.

5. Tax assessment: Value of a property computed by adding capital improvements to the original price and deducting accrued depreciation.