Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• PROXY
  
  If you own common stock in a US corporation, you have the right to vote on company policies and to elect the company's board of directors. You may vote in person at the annual meeting or authorize the board to vote on your behalf using an absentee ballot, or proxy, which you can submit by mail or, increasingly often, by telephone or over the Internet. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires each company to provide a proxy statement, which describes the issues being voted on and introduces the candidates for director. The proxy also reports the total compensation of the company's top five executives, as well as the company's stock performance in relation to Standard & Poor's 500-stock Index (S&P 500) and to comparable companies in the industry.
  
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