Investing Glossary

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A - F

G - L

M - P

R - Z

Accredited Investor

An accredited investor is an individual or a business entity that is allowed to trade securities that may not be registered with financial authorities. They are entitled to this privileged access by satisfying at least one requirement regarding their income, net worth, asset size, governance status, or professional experience.   read more

Active Income

Active income refers to income received for performing a service. Wages, tips, salaries, commissions, and income from businesses in which there is material participation are examples of active income.   read more

Alternative Investing

An alternative investment is a financial asset that does not fall into one of the conventional investment categories. Conventional categories include stocks, bonds, and cash.   read more

Basis Point

The term basis points (BPS) refers to a common unit of measure for interest rates and other percentages in finance. One basis point is equal to 1/100th of 1%, or 0.01%.   read more

Business Loan

Business loans are lending agreements made between business owners and banks or private lenders. Businesses need capital, either to fund operations or simply to start themselves up and begin turning a profit.   read more

Capital Gain

The term capital gain refers to the increase in the value of a capital asset when it is sold. Put simply, a capital gain occurs when you sell an asset for more than what you originally paid for it.   read more

Credit Card Acquiring

Credit card acquiring is the process of collecting card-based payments that have been accepted by stores or retailers. When you go to a store, make a purchase and pay using your credit card, your cardholder information is first sent to the merchant’s acquiring bank/processor for routing through the card network, and then sent to your issuing bank for approval.   read more

Crypto Currency

Cryptocurrency is a digital payment system that doesn’t rely on banks to verify transactions. It’s a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments.   read more

Crypto Wallet

A crypto wallet is an application that functions as a wallet for your cryptocurrency. It is called a wallet because it is used similarly to a wallet you put cash and cards in.   read more

Debt Investment

Debt investment is an investment made in a firm or project through the purchase of a large quantity of debt, with the expectation of being paid back plus interest. There are debt investments that include private investors such as financers for debt products, as well as the more commonly offered debt investments by banks and lenders.   read more

Hard Money Loan

A hard money loan is a type of loan that is secured by real property. These loans are primarily used in real estate transactions, with the lender generally being individuals or companies and not banks.   read more

Inflation

Inflation is a rise in prices, which can be translated as the decline of purchasing power over time. The rate at which purchasing power drops can be reflected in the average price increase of goods and services over some period of time.   read more

Internal Rate of Return

The internal rate of return (IRR) is a metric used in financial analysis to estimate the profitability of potential investments. IRR is a discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of all cash flows equal to zero in a discounted cash flow analysis.   read more

Liquidity

Liquidity refers to the efficiency or ease with which an asset or security can be converted into ready cash without affecting its market price. The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.   read more

Market Cap

Market Cap refers to the total dollar market value of a company’s outstanding shares of stock. The investment community uses this figure to determine a company’s size instead of sales or total asset figures.   read more

MCA Funding Company

A merchant cash advance (MCA) is a short-term financing option in which a business receives a lump sum of funding and pays the money back incrementally. A percentage of the company’s daily or weekly credit or debit card sales is normally deducted as repayment for the funding.   read more

Merchant Cash Advances

A merchant cash advance (MCA) is a short-term financing option in which a business receives a lump sum of funding and pays the money back incrementally. An MCA allows a business owner who accepts credit card payments or has other payment or receivables streams to obtain an advance of the funds regularly flowing through the business’ merchant account.   read more

NFT

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency.   read more

Non-Accredited Investor

The SEC regulates what a non-accredited investor can invest in and what those investments need to provide in terms of documentation and transparency. A non-accredited investor is any investor who does not meet the income or net worth requirements set out by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).   read more

Passive Income

Passive income is earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership, or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved. As with active income, passive income is usually taxable, but it is often treated differently by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has specific rules for what it calls material participation, which determine whether a taxpayer has actively participated in business, rental, or other income-producing activity.   read more

Recurring Income

Recurring revenue is the portion of a company’s revenue that is expected to continue in the future. Unlike one-off sales, these revenues are predictable, stable and can be counted on to occur at regular intervals going forward with a relatively high degree of certainty.   read more

Regulation A

Under U.S. securities laws, an offering or sale of a security must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or meet an exemption.   read more

Regulation A+

Regulation A+ is the colloquial name given to a recently adopted SEC rule that amended and expanded a rarely used offering exemption named Regulation A. Regulation A+ dramatically improves the funding and liquidity prospects for companies that want a more practical and cost-effective way to raise capital or to IPO on the NASDAQ, and to retain control of their company.   read more

Regulation D

Regulation D (Reg D) is a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation governing private placement exemptions. It should not be confused with Federal Reserve Board Regulation D, which limits withdrawals from savings accounts.   read more

Term

Depending on the context, the expression term can mean a couple of things in finance. It can refer to the lifespan assigned to an asset or a liability, over which the value of the asset/liability is expected to either grow or shrink, depending on its nature.   read more

Volatility

Volatility is a statistical measure of the dispersion of returns for a given security or market index. In most cases, the higher the volatility, the riskier the security.   read more