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What is volatility? In the world of investing, volatility basically means riskiness. It looks at the returns for stocks or indexes, and if they are...

What is Alpha? Alpha is an investing term that describes the success of an investment. It looks at the investment’s ability to beat beta (or mark...

What is Beta? Beta is a figure associated with public companies that measures how risky the company’s stock is in comparison to the market as a w...

What are moving averages? Moving averages are calculated using past stock prices in an attempt to determine future trends. It’s calculated by ave...

What are Angel Investors and Seed Funds? Angel investors provide the funds for small start-ups. They are usually family and friends (not institutio...

The Russell Index is a series of indices that tracks the progress of stocks in a given basket. Aw. We were hoping it tracked adorable Jack Russell...

The Investment Company Act of 1940 regulated and ensured fair dealings in the mutual fund industry.

How are risk and reward related? Take more risk, expect more reward. A lottery ticket might be worth a billion dollars, but if the odds are one in...

What is Counterparty Risk? Counterparty risk is the risk to either party within a transaction that the other will not or be unable to abide by the...

How do you get a startup funded? Depends if we're talking about a tech startup, or a non-tech startup. If you've got a promising, budding tech comp...

What is liquidity? Think: water. It's liquid. It can be squeezed into little, tiny spaces and infused into large spaces. A defining trait of liquid...

What is a Country Basket (Index Fund)? Investing internationally can be a challenge, as foreign exchange, different accounting rules, time zones an...

What is the Federal Funds Rate? The federal funds rate is the interest rate used for overnight lending between banks. The amount banks are able to...

What does it mean to "go public?" An IPO raises cash in the form of equity, usually, for investors. When public, a company exists under SEC dominio...

What is risk? When looking at risk from an investment standpoint, it’s not all bad. As with any decision, higher risk can mean higher reward, and...

Most active stocks aren't the ones excelling in Couch to 5K...so what are they? Hit play to find out.

What is an Entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is just a person who starts and owns his or her own business. As an entrepreneur, every step in starting a...

A REIT is a mini-mutual fund for real estate investments. Aw. Sounds cute.

The random walk hypothesis is a financial theory that suggests the market is unpredictable, and can't be beaten. (Cough-cough-B.S.)

What's the difference between low and high standard deviation? In financial analysis, deviation refers to the the degree of variance from the avera...

Sandbagging is the practice of keeping financial estimates conservative so that they are more likely to exceed expectations. We do a similar thing at work. Always under promise, always over deliver.

What is a Buy and Hold Strategy? A buy and hold strategy can be thought of as what someone might use in a retirement account or college account (comprised of stock) for a young child. They make investments and let them sit there without changes for a long time regardless of any movements in price because these movements should be short-term.

What is a muni bond? Muni bonds are bonds issued by the government. They are used to raise the money required to pay for government responsibilities like schools and roadways. Because of their nature and purpose, they are not taxed, so they make for pretty good investment opportunities for people in high tax brackets.

What is Bond Amortization? Bond amortization is simply the spreading out of the cost of the bond over time. Bonds have amortization schedules and these lay out how the bond is paid including principal and what is owed in interest.

What is the Relative Strength Index? The Relative Strength Index is a technical analysis indicator that measures trading direction trends over the course of 14 trading sessions (on average) and calculates the degree of up and down percentages to determine whether or not the asset in question may be indicating an overbought or oversold signal.

NAV isn't a cool new navigation app...it's how mutual fund shares are valued or priced at the end of each trading day.

What is amortization? Amortization tracks the decline in value of a contract or service, usually paid for in advance. You received $10,000 in advance to water Ms. Maple's lawn for 10 months. She amortizes your watering to the tune of a decline in value of that contract of $1,000 as each month goes by.

What are Weighted Averages and Expected Values? Weighted averages are averages calculated to account for the number of changes that a variable, such as price, may have, especially when the same asset may have been added to the portfolio in varying quantities and price costs over time for a cumulative total. Expected Values is an anticipated prediction of an asset’s value over a specified time that is calculated as the total of possible results times their statistical probability.

What are position trading and swing trading? Get your mind out of the gutter. They're way more boring than they sound.

Inventory turnover...way less delicious than an apple turnover. So...what is it?

What is Regulation Full Disclosure? Publicly traded companies are required by SEC rules to release full disclosure of all info related to material events of the company within legal limits and federal statutes. For example, in order to be compliant with SEC rules, Northrop Grumman could announce a new deal to supply fighter jets for the USAF and the dollar amount of the deal, as well as for how many units over what period of time. However, national security rules would prevent the need to disclose the kind of weaponry or tactical stealth capabilities that the aircraft may include.

What are operating profits, net profits and gross profits? Profits for a company can be calculated several different ways depending on what metric is being cited. Gross profits are measured by total revenues minus cost of goods or services sold. Of course, a company also has operating expenses, as well as depreciation and amortization, which are accounting deductions on equipment and other property belonging to the company. The Operating profit subtracts those elements from the Gross profit. The Net profit also factors in taxes and interest, which are also company costs that can apply against revenues. Naturally, the Net profit will result in the smallest number. Gross profit is also sometimes referred to as EBITDA, which is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.

Who benefits from unions? Trade unions ostensibly exist to protect the interests of their rank and file constituent members. They were crucial for enacting safety rules and fair practices during the early and mid periods of industrialization in Western society. Changes in labor laws and increased flexibility in human resources, the resurgence of small businesses, and the corruption problems between trade union officers and organized crime have reduced private sector participation in trade unions membership.

Indirect costs are any cost associated with running a business, other than costs for materials that are directly used to produce your company's goods.

What are systematic and unsystematic risk? Take a risk on this video and hit play.

What is mark to market? Is it when Mark Zuckerberg writes the stock market a letter, thanking it for being a friend?

How do some accountants “cook the books”? Cooking the books refers to accountants making company’s financials look much better than they are. They can do this in a bunch of different ways, including accounting for revenue that isn’t promised, pushing back payments owed, and messing with what is owed to employees, among other fancy tricks.

What is Accrual Accounting? Accrual accounting is used to determine how well a company is doing by looking at the present and the future. It takes into account purchases that are made and debts that are owed as soon as the transaction is made, rather than when the money is received or paid.

What is Defeasance? Defeasance is the process by which a borrower accumulates cash or other liquid assets sufficient to retire significant portions if not the entirety of outstanding debt obligations that amount to a wash on the company’s balance sheet. This allows the debt to be effectively paid off without incurring prepayment penalties.

What is Brand Equity? Brand Equity refers to the added or subtracted value that name recognition may accord to a company’s products and services. If a company has positive brand equity, the introduction of new products under the same name will be more likely to have a favorable market response. Apple, Nike, and Mercedes-Benz are examples of companies with positive Brand Equity. Conversely, a negative brand equity will make new products and services under the same name have a harder time due to the stigma of the brand name’s negative connotations, even if the products or services have superior features when compared with their rivals. Blackberry would be such an example.