Beep

The sound a car horn makes in cartoons.

In the financial world, beep is a nickname for "basis point," which is a way of measuring figures given in percentages.

A basis point, or BPS, or beep, equates to one one-hundredth of a percent. So 5% equals 500 basis points. Changes in rates are often given in basis points to avoid confusion about whether the change relates to a number of percentage points, or by an actual percent. (See: Basis Price).

So if you have a 5% rate and you say that there will be a "ten percent increase," that could mean either a) it is rising by 10 percentage points, to go to 15%, or b) it is rising by 10% to go to 5.5%.

To avoid this confusion, you could say "it's rising by 50 beeps." This comes up a lot when the Federal Reserve moves interest rates, which usually move by 25 or 50 basis points at a time.

However, the Fed tends not to say the word "beeps." You can say "beeps," but the chairperson of the Federal Reserve will say "basis points." Because the Fed Chair is not a cartoon car horn.