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This glossary is your go-to resource for understanding over 300 essential terms and acronyms used across our Saving, Investing, and Trading courses. Each definition is concise and easy to understand, designed to clarify key concepts and help you build a solid foundation in financial literacy.
The glossary is divided into six sections, corresponding to all the letters of the alphabet. Simply click on the first letter of the term or acronym you're looking for to jump directly to the corresponding section. Use the links throughout the courses to quickly access the definitions you need, when you need them.
glossary - "E"
Earnings Call
A conference call where a public company discusses financial performance.
Earnings Season
The period, occurring four times a year, when most publicly traded companies release their quarterly financial reports.
EBITDA - "Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization"
A measure of a company's operating performance, indicating earnings from core operations before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
ECN - "Electronic Communication Network"
An automated system that matches buy and sell orders for securities in the financial markets, allowing direct trading without a traditional exchange.
EMA - "Exponential Moving Average"
A type of moving average that gives more weight to recent prices, making it more responsive to new information compared to the simple moving average.
EMA Crossover
A trading signal that occurs when a shorter-term EMA crosses above or below a longer-term EMA, indicating potential bullish or bearish momentum.
Emergency Fund
Savings set aside to cover unexpected expenses or financial emergencies, typically amounting to three to six months of living expenses.
EOD - "End of Day"
The closing time of regular trading hours in financial markets, typically at 4:00 PM EST for U.S. stock exchanges.
EPS - "Earnings Per Share"
A financial metric that indicates a company's profitability, calculated by dividing net income by the total number of outstanding shares.
ESG Investing - "Environmental, Social, and Governance Investing"
An investment approach that considers a company’s environmental, social, and governance factors alongside financial returns.
ETF - "Exchange-Traded Fund"
An investment fund that trades on stock exchanges, holding a diversified portfolio of assets like stocks, bonds, or commodities.
ETH - "Extended Trading Hours"
The period before and after the regular trading session when stocks can be traded, usually pre-market and after-hours.
ETN - "Exchange-Traded Note"
A debt security issued by a financial institution that tracks the performance of an underlying index or asset, but without actual ownership of the asset.
Ex-Dividend Date
The date when a stock starts trading without the value of its next dividend payment.
Execution Risk
The risk that a trade order may not be executed at the expected price due to market volatility, delays, or insufficient liquidity.
Divider Placeholder
glossary - "F"
FAANG
Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google (now Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet).
FDIC - "Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation"
A U.S. government agency that provides insurance to depositors in commercial banks and savings institutions, protecting up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank.
FED - "Federal Reserve"
The central bank of the United States, responsible for setting national monetary policy, regulating banks, maintaining financial stability, and providing financial services to the government and financial institutions.
Fibonacci Retracement
A technical analysis tool that uses horizontal lines to indicate areas of support or resistance.
Fibonacci Sequence
A series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1 (e.g., 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc.), commonly used in trading to identify potential retracement and extension levels based on the "golden ratio" of 1.618.
Fill or Kill (FOK)
An order that must be executed immediately or canceled.
Fixed income
A type of investment that provides regular, predetermined returns, such as interest or dividends, over a specified period. Examples include bonds, treasury notes, and certificates of deposit (CDs), where investors receive consistent payments until maturity.
Float
The total number of shares of a company that are available for trading by the public, excluding restricted shares held by insiders or employees.
Floor Pivots
A technical analysis tool used to identify potential intraday support and resistance levels, calculated based on the previous trading session's high, low, and close prices, with the central pivot point serving as a reference for market sentiment.
FOMC - "Federal Open Market Committee"
The branch of the Federal Reserve responsible for setting U.S. monetary policy, including interest rates and open market operations, with the goal of promoting economic stability, maximum employment, and price stability.
FOMO - "Fear of Missing Out"
The anxiety or fear that traders or investors feel when they believe they are missing out on a profitable opportunity in the market.
Forex - "Foreign Exchange Market"
A global decentralized market for trading currencies, where participants buy, sell, and exchange currencies at current or determined prices.
Front-Running
The unethical practice of executing orders for a security based on advance knowledge of pending transactions that will affect its price.
FTSE - "Financial Times Stock Exchange Index"
A series of stock market indices that track the performance of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, with the FTSE 100 being the most well-known.
Fungible
Refers to assets that are interchangeable and identical in value, meaning one unit can be easily replaced by another of the same kind, such as stocks, bonds, or currency. For example, one share of Apple (AAPL) is identical to any other share of AAPL, making it fully interchangeable.
Futures
Financial contracts obligating the buyer to purchase, or the seller to sell, an underlying asset (such as commodities, currencies, or indices) at a predetermined price and date, commonly used for hedging or speculative purposes.
Divider Placeholder
glossary - "G"
Gamma
A measure of the rate of change in an option's delta relative to a one-point change in the price of the underlying asset, indicating the option’s sensitivity to price movements.
Gamma Scalping
A trading strategy that involves adjusting a delta-neutral options position to profit from changes in an option’s gamma as the underlying asset's price fluctuates.
GDP - "Gross Domestic Product"
The total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country's borders over a specific time period, used to measure economic performance.
GTC Order - "Good 'Til Cancelled Order"
An order to buy or sell a security that remains active until it is either executed or manually canceled by the trader.
Growth Investing
An investment strategy focused on buying stocks or assets of companies expected to grow at an above-average rate compared to others in the market.
Growth Stock
Stock of a company expected to grow at an above-average rate.
Divider Placeholder
glossary - "H"
Hedge
An investment to reduce the risk of adverse price movements in an asset.
HELOC - "Home Equity Line of Credit"
A revolving line of credit secured by the equity in a homeowner's property, allowing them to borrow funds as needed up to a set limit.
HFT - "High-Frequency Trading"
A type of algorithmic trading that uses powerful computers to execute large numbers of orders at extremely high speeds, often within fractions of a second.
High-Yield Savings Account
A savings account that offers a higher interest rate than traditional savings accounts, allowing funds to grow faster.