Investing Dictionary

The highest price a stock has been in the last year

Trading after the market closes at 4 PM ET

The average opinion of professional stock analysts

How much a stock typically moves in a day

A snapshot of everything a company owns and owes

When stocks are falling

How much a stock moves compared to the overall market

The gap between what buyers offer and what sellers want

A rare, unpredictable event that causes massive market disruption

A large, stable, well-known company with a long track record

Lines around a stock's price showing its normal range

A loan you give to a company or government that pays you interest

What a company is worth on paper if you sold everything and paid all debts

When a stock bursts above a resistance level

The app or platform where you buy stocks

When stocks are going up

Buy stocks and keep them for years

When a company buys back its own shares

A contract giving you the right to buy a stock at a set price

A chart shape that shows a stock's price movement in a time period

Too much money in one stock, sector, or asset type

Buying what everyone else is selling, and selling what everyone is buying

How closely two investments move together

The risk that the other side of a deal can't hold up their end

Selling someone else the right to buy your stock at a higher price

A grade for how likely a borrower is to repay their debt

A bullish chart pattern shaped like a coffee cup

Buying and selling stocks within the same day

A bearish signal when a short-term average falls below a long-term one

How much a company borrowed vs. what it actually owns

Not putting all your eggs in one basket

Cash a company pays you just for owning their stock

Investing in companies that consistently grow their dividend every year

Invest a fixed amount every month no matter what

A "W" shaped pattern that signals a potential reversal upward

How much your investment dropped from its peak

Automatically reinvesting dividends to buy more shares

A company's quarterly report card

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization

How much profit a company makes per share

A basket of many stocks in one

The last day an option can be used

The US central bank that controls interest rates and the money supply

Key price levels where a stock might pause or reverse

P/E ratio based on expected future earnings, not past ones

Actual cash left after all expenses

When a stock opens much higher or lower than it closed

Buying a stock expecting it to go up

A bullish signal when a short-term average crosses above a long-term one

Revenue left after subtracting the direct cost of making the product

Buying companies growing fast even if expensive

A company's prediction for their own future performance

A chart pattern that often signals a trend reversal

An investment that offsets losses in another

The market's expectation of how much a stock will move

A scoreboard for a group of stocks

Buying funds that track the whole market instead of picking stocks

Prices rising over time, making your money worth less

Tracking what company executives are buying

When a company goes public for the first time

Using borrowed money or financial instruments to amplify your investment

Buy or sell only at a specific price or better

How easy it is to buy or sell something quickly

A momentum indicator showing when a trend might be changing

Borrowing money from your broker to buy more stocks

Total value of a company

Buy or sell immediately at whatever price is available

Buying stocks that are already going up

The average price of a stock over a set number of days

A pool of money from many investors managed by a professional

Profit from the core business before taxes and interest

How expensive a stock is compared to its profits

A very cheap stock, usually from a tiny or risky company

All your investments together

Deciding how much of your money to put in one stock

Trading that happens before the market officially opens

Stock price vs. the company's net assets

How much investors pay for each dollar of a company's revenue

What percentage of revenue becomes actual profit

A contract giving you the right to sell a stock at a set price

Adjusting your portfolio back to your target allocation

A company that owns real estate you can buy like a stock

A price where a stock tends to stop rising

How efficiently a company uses shareholder money to make profit

Total money a company brings in

Comparing how much you could lose vs. how much you could gain

A score (0–100) showing if a stock is overbought or oversold

A group of companies in the same type of business

Moving money between sectors depending on the economic cycle

One unit of a stock

How many people are betting a stock will fall

Betting that a stock will go down

A tiny piece of ownership in a company

When a company divides its shares into more, cheaper pieces

An automatic sell order if a stock drops too much

The price at which an option lets you buy or sell

A price where a stock tends to stop falling

Holding stocks for days to weeks to capture medium-term moves

Selling losing investments to reduce your tax bill

The short code used to identify a stock

Buying stocks that are cheaper than they're worth

How wildly a stock's price swings

How many shares were traded today

A company's short-term financial cushion

The income you earn on an investment as a percentage

A graph showing interest rates at different loan lengths