Analysis is a detailed examination of the composition or structure of something (a stock portfolio, for example). In general, the better the analysis, the greater the confidence in the financial choices you make.
Archive for the ‘Daily Definition’ Category
Analysis is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Discounting is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Discounting is the process of figuring out how much money you need to invest now to have a certain amount of money in the future. It’s the opposite of compounding, through which you figure out how much a certain amount invested now will be worth in the future. Let’s say you want to have $100 dollars in 5 years. Discounting would tell you how much money you’d need to invest now to reach that goal.
An Emerging Market is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009An emerging market is a financial sector or economy that isn’t quite as developed as that of, say, the United States or Western Europe, but that is experiencing rapid growth. Some emerging markets, especially Brazil, Russia, India, and China (collectively known as BRIC), are quickly becoming major world economic players.
Volatility is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009A Glamour Stock is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009A glamour stock is a stock that is popular among investors because it has consistently high growth and earnings and because its price is rising very quickly.
A Pump and Dump is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009A “pump and dump” is an investing scam in which con artists use false or misleading statements to get investors to buy up a lot of a particular stock that the scammers also own. If a lot of people buy the stock, the price of the stock generally goes up. The con artists can then sell theirs at an inflated price, after which the stock price usually falls again, causing the other investors to lose their money.
A Boiler Room is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009A boiler room is a bank of telephones, usually set up by a broker, from which salespeople make calls to potential investors and pressure them to buy stocks. This is generally considered an unethical practice.
A Weighted Average is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009A weighted average is an average (or mean) in which each factor is multiplied by a number that reflects its importance. For example, imagine you have 20 shares of Company A that are each worth $10, and 30 shares of Company B that are each worth $5. When you want to find out the average price of each of your shares, you would multiply the number of A shares you own (20) by their value ($10) (=$200), then do the same for Company B (30 × $5 = $150). Add these two values together ($200 + $150 = $350), and divide by the total number of shares (20 + 30 = 50). Your weighted average, then is $350 ÷ 50, or $7.
Wall Street is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Wall Street is literally a street in New York City where the New York Stock Exchange and many major financial institutions are located. The term “Wall Street” is often used to refer to the investment community in general.
Spot Price is…
Thursday, August 20th, 2009The spot price is the current market price of an actual physical commodity. Sometimes this is also called the cash price. The spot price is traded on the spot market, where goods are sold for cash and delivered immediately. So, if you buy a barrel of oil on the spot market for $60, then you will receive the actual barrel of oil as soon as possible.