WeSeed Glossary

  • 401(k), 403(b), 457

    These numbers spell out free money. A lot of employers offer retirement account plans such as these that allow you to put a portion of your pre-tax paycheck into your retirement account. The only catch is, you have to wait until you're in your 60s to spend it. If you spend it any earlier, Uncle Sam will come a knockin'.  

  • Accounts payable

    This is basically a big box of I.O.U.s—it's the money that is owed to the folks waiting to be paid by the company. These are people like suppliers and vendors. Like for McDonald's, this would be the bun guy.

  • Accrual basis

    This is a way for companies to account for earnings and expenses in those crazy-long financial statements. The “accrual basis” method is just a fancy way of saying that companies report income when it’s earned and expenses when they’re incurred. Got it, Einstein?

  • Accrued interest

    The interest you earn and are promised to get that hasn't yet been paid to you, so like that $10 you lent a friend a year ago and charged $1 interest on but that they haven't paid you yet, that $1 is your accrued interest.

  • American Depository Receipt

    Like French wine and Italian olive oil, sometimes you just have to go offshore to get what you're looking for. It's the same with investing in American depository receipts—buy foreign companies (shares) without having to go to foreign exchanges. U.S. banks act like your importer so you don't get bogged down with currency conversions, overseas transaction fees, and a whole bunch of other foreign foolishness.   

  • American Stock Exchange

    If you want to buy (or sell) a stock, this is one of the places that has the goods. Also known as the AMEX, it’s one of the three major stock exchanges in the U.S. (the NYSE and NASDAQ are the other two). It was founded in 1842 and is now owned by the NASDAQ, but it still operates on its own. 

  • Amortization

    Say you owe a boatload of money to the bank because you just bought a, ummmm, boat. Instead of paying for it in one lump sum, you can in installments. Each installment will include a little interest on the loan (no such thing as free money right?) and principle (that's the money you borrowed), and while the monthly payments will stay the same the amount that goes to interest and to principle will change with the life of the loan until it's all paid off, and that's amortization, captain. 

  • Analyst

    Someone who covers the stock world like a fantasy-baseball geek covers a sport. They try to tell you who is in, who is out and what the next hot trend is. Most are paid professionals but, shhhh! Here's a secret: Some are just hacks. 

  • Annual report

    This report airs the company's dirty laundry with the freshest spin possible. They tell you what happened last year and what the financials look like all in one place, they can usually be found filed with the SEC or on the company website. Companies are required by law to put these out, but don't get fooled by the pretty pictures—the bad stuff is in there too. 

  • Ask Price

    If stocks had those little price stickers you see at the grocery store, this would be it, it's the price you pay to buy the stock and put it in your grocery cart.

  • Asset(s)

    All the stuff a company owns that has some sort of value, such as cash, inventory, stocks, the chair you're sitting in, the building, and other less tangible things like secret recipes and patented bright ideas.

  • Authorized Stock or Shares Authorized

    When you play Monopoly, you get some gold dollars, blue dollars, and green ones. In real life, companies are allotted a certain number of shares they can play with. It is the legal number of shares a company has and can issue.

  • Automatic Reinvestment

    It's just like at the casinos, where you can cash out your chips or toss them back onto the table. This is a way of buying additional shares of a stock simply by reinvesting the dividends.  

  • Balance Sheet

    This financial statement tells you if the company is in the black (good) or red (bad). The statement details the good, the bad, and the ugly of the company's liabilities, assets and shareholders’ equity. One rule to remember here is a company's assets = liabilities + shareholders' equity.

  • Basis Point

    A term usually used by pros to refer to changes in interest rates. One “basis point” is 1/100 of a percentage point, or .0001. This may not look like much, but when you're buying a house, it's a lot. Trust us. 

  • Bear Market

    Rooaaaaaaar! This means the market is tanking. The pros usually say we’re in a bear market when the stock market drops 10%. A drop of less than 10% is often referred to as a “correction.”

  • Beta

    Tells you how volatile a stock is compared to the market as a whole. So if it has a beta of 1.2, it's more volatile than the market (which is at ‘1’), and if it’s .8, it’s less volatile than the market.

  • Bid Price

    How much is the stock worth to you? The bid is the price at which customers can sell their stocks, bonds, and options.

  • Bid/Ask Spread

    The difference between the bid price and the ask price.  This is the money the market maker gets to keep.

  • Bonds

    When you buy bonds, you're basically lending money to municipalities, states, and other government entities, which they use for construction projects and other fun stuff. They then pay you back with interest. These aren’t the biggest money makers, but bonds are fairly stable for those of you who think “risk” is a dirty word.

  • Book value

    Theoretically, it’s what a shareholder would receive if the company were liquidated or sold for cash today. As we all know, the books don't always reflect the reality.

  • Bull Market

    Like a bull charging forward, a “bull market” is typically a market on the upswing. Olé!  

  • Business Cycle

    Like your girlfriend's mood: some days it's up, some days it's down. The cycle is the ebb and flow of business activity for one company over a period of time. The standard cycle is: expansion, peak, contraction, and recession.

  • Buy and hold

    The opposite of day-trading, this method of investing is when you buy stock and hold it for over a year. See? It's not rocket science.   

  • Call

    This is like layaway. You think you want that sequin shirt, but you want to buy it next month when you have more change in your pocket. For a small fee, not only will the layaway clerk keep the shirt for you, but he'll keep the price the same for you as well. Calls give you the right—but not the obligation—to buy stock at a specified price by a specified date.

  • Cash and cash equivalents

    Dough, coin, dineros, moolah, green—call it what you want, but cash is cash. This is the change a company has sitting in the bank, and will be listed on a company's balance sheet under their assets.   

  • Cash basis

    The method in which companies report income when it’s actually received (as opposed to earned on paper) and expenses when they’re actually incurred. 

  • Cash Flow from Financing Activities (CFF)

    The cash that comes and goes from the company borrowing money, paying cash dividends, and raising money from the sale of stock.

  • Cash Flow from Investing Activities (CFI)

    The cash that comes and goes from the company making investments in itself—external stock purchases, property, plants, and equipment. If the company is a lemonade stand, for instance, money would be used to upgrade the lemonade cart and maybe buy a few shares of a lemon grove company.

  • Cash Flow from Operating Activities (CFO)

    The cash that comes and goes from the company’s sales and product expenses. This is the 5 cents you paid out in lemons and the 25 cents you received for a cup of lemonade. 

  • Churn

    Slick brokers might trade your stocks more frequently than you'd like—all this trading is called churn. Why? Because more trading means more fees. Cheaters churn chumps. Don't be a chump.

  • Closing Price

    The final price of a stock when the market closes for the day. The only time it gets to rest after a long day filled with ups and down.

  • Commission

    Brokers don't make your trades for you out of the goodness of their heart. “Full service brokers” charge higher commissions for being at your beck and call. “Discount brokers” charge a lot less, usually as low as about $10, depending on your order size. 

  • Correction

    Experts will say we’ve had a market “correction” when they think the prices of stocks have come back to Earth, or to their “correct” values.

  • Cost Basis

    This is the original, out-of-pocket cost to buy an investment, including the commission. 

  • Cost of Goods Sold

    How much it costs a company to produce and prepare whatever it's selling. For a lemonade stand, it would be the lemons, the sugar, and the hourly pay the juicer makes.

  • Current Assets

    For our proverbial lemonade stand, this would be the lemons, the sugar, and the cups—all the stuff a company has that will be turned into cash within one year.  

  • Current Liabilities

    Let's say you borrowed $5 to buy your lemonade stand, or the grocer sends you a bill for your lemons. These are the liabilities. It's everything a company will be paying off within one year. 

  • Current Ratio

    This ratio is a quick way for you to see if a company can pay its short-term debts. The higher the number the better, because it means a company can quickly pay what’s due. You get the current ratio by dividing the “current assets” by the “current liabilities."

  • Daily Low

    This is the bottom-of-the-barrel stock price during a day of trading.  

  • Debt

    It's a bad word in personal finance, but it's pretty common in the corporate world. This is the money that a company owes to a lender.

  • Debt-to-Equity Ratio

    This number tells you how much a company is “leveraged”—or how much a company owes vs. how much it has. The higher the number, the riskier the business. To get it, take total liabilities and divide them by shareholders' equity.

  • Depreciation

    How much something loses in value over a period of time. New cars depreciate the second they leave the lot, for instance.

  • Derivative

    Options, futures, and mortgage-backed securities are forms of derivatives because their value is “derived” from something else like stocks, bonds, or the S&P 500.

  • Discount brokerage

    Discount brokers allow you to buy and sell stocks but offer limited services compared to full-service brokers. 

  • Discount Rate

    The interest rate the Federal Reserve Board charges its member banks for loans. When the “Fed” drops rates, it's cheaper for you to take out a loan.

  • Dividend

    Not all companies pay dividends, but when they do, you should say "Cha-ching!" Dividends are payments the company makes to their shareholders. They're a way of giving the shareholder a piece of the profit pie.

  • Dividend Discount Model (DDM)

    A crystal ball or model analysts use for valuing stocks: It predicts future dividends, then discount them back to their present value. If the value calculated is higher than the current stock price, the stock is viewed as undervalued, which is the kind of stock you want to buy.

  • Dividend Yield

    Put your dividend dinero into a percentage: a $1 annual dividend for a $10 stock has a 10% yield.

  • Dollar Cost Averaging

    If you like Russian roulette, this investing strategy might be too stable for you. Depending on the price you buy your stock at, you could win big or lose big. Dollar cost averaging minimizes those extremes. Instead of buying a lot of stock at one price, this strategy allows you to buy small amounts of the stock at different price points over the course of a year. If you’re participating in your 401(k), chances are you’re already using dollar cost averaging.  

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average

    The grandaddy of them all when it comes to indices only because it’s the oldest and most popular—not the largest or most representative. The Dow only represents the prices of 30 largest and most widely held companies in the U.S.

  • Earnings Per Share

    This is the amount of money earned per every one share. If the company made $1 million in profits and has 1 million shares outstanding, the EPS would be $1.

  • EBITDA

    It stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. But losing the geek speak, this is just the profit you made before anyone like Uncle Sam can take a piece out of it.  

  • Enterprise Value (EV)

    Absolutely nothing to do with Star Trek, you big nerd. This is the entire value of a company, taking debt into account.

  • Equities

    A fancy term for stocks. If you've got stock, you technically have an "equitable claim" on the company. Get used to the fancy words...Wall Street loves them.

  • EV/EBITDA

    Enterprise value divided by EBITDA, a valuation method that takes debt into account.

  • Ex-dividend Date

    This is the date stock is traded without the previously declared dividend; typically in the US this is two business days before the record date.

  • Expense Ratio

    This is the broker's cut stated as a percentage so it doesn't sound as bad. It's kind of like the fantasy-football organizer saying that he is going to take 2% of the entrance fee rather than a $100 from the pot. Expense ratios of less than 1% are nice.

  • Expenses

    All the costs a company has shelled out for. A cabbie has to pay for his car, gas, and maintenance, but he also has to pay for other expenses that aren't quite so obvious like the credit-card company fee that he's assessed every time he swipes your credit card. 

  • Explicit costs

    Don't worry, this isn't rated R. These are clear, observable costs associated with doing business. If you own a lemonade stand, your costs will be lemons, water, sugar, and cups.

  • Fair Market Value

    This is the magic price at which sellers are willing to sell and buyers are willing to buy. But it's a fickle beast: A house worth $250,000 one day could be worth $200,000 a week later.

  • Federal Funds Rate

    This is the rate banks charge other banks for overnight loans. Yeah, that's right, overnight. Oh yeah.

  • Federal Reserve

    The big cheese that sets interest rates and policies for the supply of money and credit. The Fed is our nation’s central bank and is governed by a seven-member board. 

  • Free cash flow

    The dough that’s left over after a company has paid its bills and everything else. 

  • Full Service Brokerage

    Just like a chauffeured limo is a more expensive ride than driving yourself, these guys will do more stuff for you and your stocks—but they'll charge a pretty penny too.

  • GAAP

    Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or the accounting rules publicly traded companies use so that "creative" accounting is kept to a minimum.

  • Good-Til-Canceled (GTC) order

    This is an order to buy stock that will stay in effect until you cancel it. Day orders expire by the end of the day—kind of like your deodorant.  

  • Goodwill

    This is more than just a thrift store: The term is part of the balance sheet. It is the premium one company pays over a company's book value when purchasing another company for its good name and brand. A company that has a good reputation has a higher level of goodwill, and buyers will have to compensate the company for that. 

  • Gross Domestic Product

    If the country was a company, this would be its revenue. The total value of all the goods and services produced by a country, it helps to measure an economy's size.

  • Gross Margin

    Percentages seem scary, but think of this one in terms of dollar signs rather than percent signs. This percent measures the profit of a company taking the cost of the products into consideration. Gross Income / Net Sales = Gross Margin. 

  • Gross National Product

    No it's not reality TV. Similar to GDP, it's a measure of the size of the economy. But unlike GDP, this stat includes production by U.S. companies located outside the country.

  • Gross Profit

    This is the money made from selling a product after you subtract other costs like office supplies and salaries. Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold = Gross Profit. Uncle Sam has yet to take his cut, though, so that sack of cash isn't all yours.

  • Growth Investing

    An investment strategy in which investors identify stocks that have good potential for above-average growth. These guys are looking for the magic beans that grow like Jack's beanstalk.

  • Implicit Costs

    If you take a trip to the Bahamas and use unpaid vacation time, the money you could have made while sitting at your desk is the implicit cost of your vacation. For a company, it's all the man hours lost at the ping pong table in the break room. Implicit costs represented by lost opportunity in the use of a company’s assets.  

  • Income Investing

    An investment strategy in which investors identify stocks which they expect to provide a steady stream of income like dividends. Play your cards right and you might be able to replace the income from your paycheck...  

  • Income Statement

    One of the three common financial statements that is basically the company's quarterly budget. This is how much the company made and how much it spent, the bottom line (literally) being the profits left over.  

  • Index

    This is the sampler platter of stocks that act like a weather vane to tell you which way the wind is blowing in the market. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 Index are two of the biggies, but there are literally tons of them.

  • Inflation

    If your $20 plate of salmon just went up to $24 and there isn't any extra salmon on your plate, your dinner just got inflated. This is when the same thing costs you more now than in it did the past, for no other reason than the fact that your dollar isn’t worth as much now. This could happen to food, gas, or services.

  • Intangible assets

    An asset that lacks a physical substance like patents, recipes, copyrights, and bright ideas.  

  • Inventory

    The products and materials a company has that are ready (or nearly ready) for sale. Inventory is also a balance sheet term for the monetary value of the physical inventory.

  • IPO

    Short for Initial Public Offering, this is a private company's way of saying, "Do you want a piece of this?" This is when a company offers shares to the public to get more dough to grow the business. Also known as "going public."

  • Leverage

    Debt the company takes on to reinvest in itself to make more money. If Starbucks were to buy out another coffee house, it would do so by taking on debt in hopes that the additional sales and decreased competition would enhance its profit margin. The more debt you take on, the more leveraged you are and the riskier your biz is, but with the right amount of leverage you can make more money for shareholders. Finding the right balance can be tricky.

  • Liability

    Think of this as debt, but then cast the net a little wider. Liability is the obligation to repay its loans, IOUs, payroll, leases, pensions, vacation hours, and taxes a company owes.

  • Limit Order

    An order to buy or sell a security at a specific price. Kind of like setting your TiVo to tape something at a specific time, even if you're not around.

  • Liquidity

    Liquidity is how quickly you can turn products, money-market funds, and CDs, into cold cash in your pocket. If you have a hot product, it shouldn't take long.

  • Long-Term Assets

    These are the investments found on the balance sheet that won't be sold for more than a year. So that poor widget will have to sit on the shelf for a long time.

  • Long-term Capital Gain

    This is the profit—the gain—you make on a stock you’ve held for more than a year. You’ll pay taxes on this profit, but at least it’s lower than if you had held the stock less than a year (short-term capital gain).

  • Long-Term Debt

    This is like a mole. It's ugly, it's noticeable, and you can't do anything about it. This is debt that sits on the Balance Sheet for over a year's time.

  • Long-Term Liabilities

    You can call your little sister this all you want, but these are liabilities that are not expected to be paid off within the year. These are basically IOUs you can sit on.

  • Macroeconomics

    The big stuff these are economic factors that affect the entire country—things like the unemployment rate or interest rates.

  • Margin Account

    Taking a loan from the "House" and tossing that money on a horse is similar to margin accounts. A margin account allows you to buy stocks with a loan from the broker. Borrowed money is great... unless you lose.

  • Market Capitalization (Market Cap)

    The price of the stock multiplied by the amount of shares out there. A good way to stand companies back to back and judge them and see who's bigger and badder.

  • Market maker

    A brokerage firm that is willing to sell you a stock (at the bid price) or buy one back from you (the ask price). They play both sides and make money off of each. Brilliant!

  • Market Order

    An order to buy or sell shares at whatever the current price is in the market. Unless you choose otherwise, your order will always be a market order. The advantage of market orders is that your order is almost always guaranteed to be executed (so long as there's a willing buyer or seller).

  • Market Timing

    Market timers have a ton of confidence: They think they can figure out just the right time to buy and sell stocks in the short-term and come out ahead. Good luck with that. 

  • Market Value

    This is the value an assessor comes up with when looking at your house. Forget what you would or wouldn't pay—this is what the bank thinks your home is worth.

  • Micro-cap stocks

    These are stocks of companies that have less than $150 million in market cap value. These are the little guys.

  • Microeconomics

    Economic factors such as supply and demand, pricing, and production amount that are relevant to a specific industry, company, or product.

  • Minority Interest

    When someone like Warren Buffett owns a great deal of shares of a company, but not enough to solely make decisions for the company. Minority interest means you don't have the power!

  • Money market fund

    A place to park your cash and get a higher return than if it were in a bank account. A money market fund is a type of fund that invests in very short-term securities, such as CDs.

  • Monopoly

    No it's not the board game... as close as you can get to walking on Easy Street, monopolies are when a company has no competition for a product or service.

  • Mutual Fund

    A way to buy a basket of stocks with a theme, usually run by a mutual fund company that will charge you a fee for managing the fund. Kind of like all those college parties you used to go to—only without the beer. Unless it's a beer mutual fund.

  • NASDAQ

    It's known as The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System, but suffice to say this stock exchange is one of the biggies.

  • Natural Monopoly

    This isn't the eco version of the board game. It's a situation in which a company has no competitors due to the nature of the business. Take utilities, for example.

  • Net Asset Value (NAV)

    Take all the assets you have and subtract all the debt that you owe. The net asset value is what's left in the piggy bank. For a company this is like book value. A tip? Call it "NAV"—it makes you sound cooler.

  • Net Income

    A company’s profit or loss—the "bottom line." This is how much is left after the company pays everything, including the taxes and cash dividends.

  • Net Present Value

    Compares present value with future value—in other words, will this venture be profitable?

  • Net Profit

    This is the gravy, the money a company makes after paying expenses like salaries, marketing, and actual costs for its products or services. 

  • Net Profit Margin

    This is a percentage, and the higher the better. A higher net profit margin means more of the sales you generate are going toward the bottom line. 

  • Net Revenue

    This is the money coming in from a company’s sales, after any discounts or returns.

  • Non-Operating Activities

    Put your scalpel away "doc," these are revenues and expenses that occur outside of general business activities, like relocating or collecting an insurance settlement.

  • NYSE

    The New York Stock Exchange, a.k.a. Wall Street, is where stocks are bought and sold.  

  • Operating Activities

    Nothing to do with removing your appendix, these are business activities related to a company's products or services, like taking inventory or having a martini lunch with a client.

  • Operating Expenses

    All expenses related to operating activities like selling, marketing, general, and administrative costs. Somebody's got to answer the phone, right? That paycheck is an operating expense.

  • Operating Income

    Don’t worry, no surgery involved here. This is income from a core business. If you run a lemonade stand, it’s the money made after paying for the lemons and the sugar.   

  • Operating Margin

    This shows you how efficient a company is at selling lemonade. Are they streamlined, or are profits going sour? To figure out how good a company is take their operating income and divided by revenue, the higher the number the better they are at turning their core business into money in the bank.

  • Option

    An option is more than just "Do you want fries with that?" In market speak, options let you limit your risk when trading securities or other assets.

  • P/CF (price to cash flow)

    Accounting laws vary around the world, but cash is cash no matter where you are—and P/CF comes in very handy by telling you how many times a company's cash flow goes into a company's stock price, or the multiple of cash flow you are paying for the stock. This is one way around any accounting tomfoolery.

  • P/E Ratio

    Stocks work hard for the money, so hard for it honey—ahem. P/E ratio is "price-to-earnings": it tells you how much you’re paying for the earnings that a share is generating. For those of you who are visual learners, P/E Ratio = price per share / earnings.   

  • P/S (price to sales)

    Another indicator of how a company is doing. This one shows you how much you’re paying for the company’s ability to sell its stuff. ‘Cause if they can’t sell, that’s bad news.

  • Penny Stock

    Just what their name says: stocks that sell for less than $1 a share. Sure, they’re "cheap," but they got that way for a reason.

  • PP&E

    Property, Plant, and Equipment a company owns. What's up up with all the acronyms?!

  • Pre-paid Expenses

    Money spent on goods or services the company expects to use or receive in the future. Like paying for a plane ticket before you actually get on the plane. Sort of. 

  • Preferred Stock

    This is what the high-rollers get: A class of stock that has a higher claim on the company’s earnings and assets than your piddling common stockholders. So if the business tanks, the preferred stockholders are going to be paid first.

  • Present Value

    If you know you’re getting cash in the future, how do you value it? Barring a time machine, "present value" is how. Why? Because a bird in hand is more valuable than two in a bush.   

  • Put

    If you think a stock is going down, then you buy a type of option called a put. Easy way to remember: “PUT it DOWN.”

  • Real Return

    The return on your investments after inflation is taken into account. For example, if you earned an 8% rate in a mutual fund but inflation (the increase in prices for bread, milk, etc.) for the year was 3%, then your “real return” is 5%. Bummer. What can you say? Reality bites.

  • Receivables

    Receivables are the cash due from customers for services rendered or products sold. So if you buy a glass of lemonade at a lemonade stand, the receivables would include your five cents. So pay up!

  • Retained Earnings

    If you're expecting a dividend check and end up empty-handed, it could be because the company decided to keep the earnings and put them back into the business. This money, and all other earnings the company keeps, are called retained earnings. The amount of a company's retained earnings can be found in the shareholders' equity section of the balance sheet.

  • Return

    Gain (or loss) from an investment. Unless you're fiscally masochistic, you're going to cross your fingers for a gain.

  • Revenue

    The money generated from sales. If you own a lemonade stand and charge 25 cents per cup, add up all the sales for the day and—voila!—that's the revenue (just to keep you on your toes, sometimes people just refer to this as sales).

  • Security

    Basically, any contract representing ownership, such as stocks, bonds, options, swaps, notes, and futures. It says, "I OWN THIS"

  • Shareholder Equity (Equity Capital)

    The value of all the money shareholders have tossed into the company by buying its stock. These piles can get pretty big.

  • Shares Outstanding

    The total number of shares currently held by investors.

  • Short Term Debt

    When the grocer bills you for your lemons, that would be considered a short-term debt—debt that is to be paid within one year.

  • Statement of Cash Flows

    Do you balance your check book? So do companies, and this is what it looks like. This is one of the three common financial statements compiled by a company. It shows how the company generated cash and where it spent it.

  • Stock

    This is your piece of the corporate pie, and it entitles the holder to a share of assets and earnings.

  • Stock Options

    They give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a stock at a set price. If the stock is way above that price, buyers can make a pretty penny.    

  • Stop Order

    Let's say you're watching a stock's value drop, and you think it's going to rebound. You put in a "stop order" to buy when it falls to a certain number, and there you go. (You can also do that to buy a security when its price hits a certain number). It's almost like setting your TiVo to record when you're not around.

  • Treasury Stock

    Arghh Matie! Sorry but this has nothing to do with buried treasures or pirates. Treasury stock is stock that the company keeps for itself or buys back from other shareholders and holds on its balance sheet for a rainy day. It can come in handy when someone is looking to take the company over or they need some extra cash.

  • Value Investing

    An investment strategy that relies on picking stocks that are undervalued by the market and hoping that the market catches up at some point.

  • Working Capital

    This is the cash in the wallet. It's a quick measure of the company’s efficiency and its ability to meet short term obligations. 

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