Financial Glossary

This glossary provides definitions for common financial terms used in our reports. For more detailed explanations, please consult professional financial resources.

A

Asset: Anything of value owned by a person or company.

Annual Report: A comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year.

B

Balance Sheet: A financial statement that reports a company's assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity.

Bear Market: A market condition in which prices of securities fall 20% or more from recent highs.

C

Capital: Wealth in the form of money or assets, used or available for use in the production of more wealth.

Cash Flow: The total amount of money being transferred into and out of a business.

D

Dividend: A distribution of a portion of a company's earnings to shareholders.

Diversification: The practice of spreading investments among different assets to reduce risk.

E

Earnings Per Share (EPS): The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock.

Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF): A type of investment fund traded on stock exchanges.

F

Fundamental Analysis: A method of evaluating securities by attempting to measure the intrinsic value of a stock.

Fiscal Year: A one-year period that companies use for financial reporting and budgeting.

I

Income Statement: A financial statement that reports a company's financial performance over a specific accounting period.

Initial Public Offering (IPO): The first sale of stock by a company to the public.

L

Liability: A company's financial debts or obligations that arise during business operations.

Liquidity: The degree to which an asset can be quickly bought or sold without affecting its price.

M

Market Capitalization: The total dollar market value of a company's outstanding shares.

Mutual Fund: An investment vehicle made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors.

P

Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio): A valuation ratio of a company's current share price compared to its earnings per share.

Portfolio: A grouping of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents.

R

Return on Investment (ROI): A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment.

Risk: The chance that an investment's actual return will be different than expected.

S

Stock: A type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): A government agency that oversees securities markets and protects investors.

T

Technical Analysis: A trading discipline employed to evaluate investments and identify trading opportunities by analyzing statistical trends gathered from trading activity.

Treasury Bond: A marketable, fixed-interest U.S. government debt security with a maturity of more than 10 years.

V

Volatility: A statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index.

Value Investing: An investment strategy that involves picking stocks that appear to be trading for less than their intrinsic or book value.

Y

Yield: The income return on an investment, such as the interest or dividends received from holding a particular security.

This glossary is not exhaustive and is intended for general informational purposes only. For specific financial advice, please consult with a qualified financial advisor.