Asset
Property owned by an individual or organization that has some value. Can refer to physical items (like a house or car) or to intangible items (like a stock or bond).
Balance Sheet
A balance sheet reports a company's assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity at a specific point in time, and provides a basis for computing rates of return and evaluating its capital structure.
Bear Market
A market in which prices are falling, encouraging selling.
Bond
A bond is basically a loan, except that in this case, you're the lender. When you buy a bond, you loan an amount of money to the organization issuing the bond at a certain interest rate for a certain period of time. You are paid interest from this loan at
Brokers/Stockbrokers
a professional individual who executes buy and sell orders on behalf of clients for stocks and other securities in a listed market or over the counter, usually for a fee or commission.
Bull Market
a market in which share prices are rising, encouraging buying.
Capital Gain
the amount of money you gain from an investment (hence the name). Basically, it describes how much more money your investment is worth compared to the price you paid for it.
Capital Loss
the loss incurred when a capital asset, such as an investment or real estate, decreases in value.
Deflation
reduction of the general level of prices in an economy.
Diversification
A risk management technique in which investors combine a variety of investments assets in their portfolio in order to minimize risk.
Diversified Portfolio
A portfolio that includes a variety of securities so that the weight of any security is small reducing the risk of the investments.
Dividends
a sum of money paid regularly (typically quarterly) by a company to its shareholders (stockholders) out of its profits (or reserves).
Dow Jones Industrial Avg
a stock market index that shows how 30 large, publicly owned companies based in the United States have traded during a standard trading session in the stock market.
Employee Contributions
any form of contribution that employees make to their own benefits programs.
Equities
A stock or any other security representing an ownership interest.
Face Value
the nominal value or dollar value of a security stated by the issuer. For stocks, it is the original cost of the stock shown on the certificate. For bonds, it is the amount paid to the holder at maturity, generally $1,000. It is also known as "par value
Financial Consultants
a professional who help individuals manage their finances
Financial Planning
Long-term profit planning aimed at generating greater return on assets, growth in market share, and at solving foreseeable problems.
Growth Stock
a company stock that tends to increase in capital value rather than yield high income
Income (stock with dividends)
The government defines income as any form of money, property, or services that you receive.
Index Fund
A specific fund that is made to track the overall performance of the market, a certain investment type, or group of stocks.
Inflation
a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money
Investing
the act of committing money or capital to an endeavor with the expectation of obtaining an additional income or profit
Investment
When you spend money on something to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.
Liability
a company's legal financial debts or obligations that arise during the course of business operations or a person's personal debt
Municipal Bond
A bond issued by a state, county or city government.
Mutual Fund
A mutual fund is a collection of investment vehicles that you can buy as a single package, rather than purchasing individual stocks, bonds, and other investments yourself. Investors purchase shares of the mutual fund. The mutual fund then uses that money
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ, which stands for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, was the world's first electronic stock market. NASDAQ trades are made via computer rather than in person or over the phone.
Net Worth
everything you own of significance (your assets) minus what you owe in debts (your liabilities)
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the world in terms of amount of money traded. As the name suggests, it's located in New York City, on Wall Street, the main financial district.
Portfolio
When relating to investments, a portfolio refers to the range of investments held by an individual or organization.
Preferred Stock
stock that entitles the holder to a fixed dividend, whose payment takes priority over that of common-stock dividends.
Rate of Return
The ratio of the money you gain on an investment in relation to the amount of money that was invested. For example, if you invest $100 and generate a $25 return, the investment has a 25% rate of return: $25 return / $100 investment = 25% ROR. Rate of retu
Rental Income
any payment you receive for the use or occupation of property.
Risk
In investing terms, the chance you take that an investment may or may not result in a return.
Risk Tolerance
the degree of risk an investor is willing to take on to receive a return that they want
ROI (Return on Investment)
a performance measure, used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.
S&P 500
An index that represents the performance of 500 companies. Most of these companies are American, but not all. Since it includes the performance of a large number of companies, some consider it to be a more accurate representation of the stock market as a
SEC
an independent agency of the United States federal government whose primary purpose is to protect investors.
Securities
A security is a term referring to a category of investments. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and many other types of investments are all securities.
Speculative
trading a financial instrument involving high risk, in expectation of significant returns
Stock Exchanges
A stock exchange is a place where stocks are bought and sold. This is known as trading stocks. A stock exchange can be a real, physical location (the building where trading takes place), but it can also be more of an idea, too. For example, if you're maki
Stock Market
the collection of markets and exchanges where the issuing and trading of equities or stocks of publicly held companies, bonds, and other classes of securities take place
Stock Portfolio
a grouping of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies and cash equivalents, as well as their fund counterparts, including mutual, exchange-traded and closed funds.
Stock Symbol
an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stocksymbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both.
Stocks/Shares
a type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings
Stockholders/Shareholders
An individual, group, or organization that holds one or more shares in a company, and in whose name the share certificate is issued.
Stock Ticker
a report of the price for certain securities, updated continuously throughout the trading session by the various stock exchanges.
Tax Deferred
refers to investment earnings that accumulate tax free until the investor takes constructive receipt of the gains.
Ticker Symbol
an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both.
Treasury Bill
a short-term debt obligation backed by the Treasury Department of the U.S. government with a maturity of less than one year, sold in denominations of $1,000 up to a maximum purchase of $5 million on noncompetitive bids.
Treasury Note
a marketable U.S. government debt security with a fixed interest rate and a maturity between one and 10 years.
Volatility
It is a rate at which the price of a security increases or decreases for a given set of returns.