A contract for the sale or purchase of goods or stock at a stipulated price on a certain future day; in Stock Exchange parlance, a transaction in which one accepts the liability to profit or lose by the amount of the difference between the prices of the stock involved on the day of dealing and on the settling-day.
1775. Mortimer, Ev. Man his Our Broker, 63, note. Time-bargains, which have no foundation in real property.
1844. Harvey, Rep. Sel. Comm. on Gaming, Q. 869. A time-bargain is in the nature of a bet upon what will be the price of stocks on a given day.
1882. Bithell, Counting-ho. Dict. (1893), s.v., Time bargains originated in the practice of closing the bank for six weeks in each quarter for the preparation of the dividends. As no transfer could be made during that period, it became a practice to buy and sell for the opening.
1888. J. S. Nicholson, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 89/1. A curious example of legal evasion [of taxes on the transfer of stocks and shares] is furnished by time-bargains; and the imposition of the tax directly on the contracts of sale, instead of as at present on the actual transfer, has been strongly urged.
