By aggregating the value of a related group of stocks or other investment vehicles together and expressing their total values against a base value from a specific date. Market indexes help to represent an entire stock market and thus give investors a way to monitor the market’s changes over time.

Definition: The minimum amount of equity that must be maintained in a margin account. NYSE and FINRA a 25% margin of the total market value of the securities in the margin account. This is a minimum for all margin accounts and many brokerages have higher maintenance margin requirements of 30-40%. Maintenance Margin example If you Read More…

The percentage of the purchase price of stocks (that are purchased on margin) that an investor must pay for with his own cash or marginable securities.

Margin calls happen when your account value drops to a value below that allowed by a broker.

A company that provides ideas to support growth and organization as well as introductions for new entrepreneurs to help their startup companies. These startups are usually technology-related.

The merger of companies at the same stage of production in the same or different industries.

A high-risk bond with a low credit rating. Junk Bonds usually have a much higher yield than investment-grade bonds.

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Mutual Fund screeners are available on countless websites and trading platforms. They allow users to choose trading instruments that are suitable for certain criteria profile.

A load mutual fund comes with a sales charge or commission.

A mutual fund is a form of professionally executed investment tool that merges money from numerous investors to buy securities.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) that uses financial derivatives and debt to amplify the returns of an underlying index. Leveraged ETFs are available for most indexes, such as the Nasdaq-100 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

A type of mutual fund with a portfolio constructed to match or track the components of a market index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500). An index mutual fund is said to provide broad market exposure, low operating expenses and low portfolio turnover.

IPO

The first sale of stock by a private company to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller, younger companies seeking the capital to expand, but can also be done by large privately owned companies looking to become publicly traded.

Income statement (also referred to as profit and loss statement (P&L), revenue statement, statement of financial performance, earnings statement, operating statement or statement of operations is a company’s financial statement that indicates how the revenue (money received from the sale of products and services before expenses are taken out, also known as the “top line”) is transformed into the net income (the result after all revenues and expenses have been accounted for, also known as Net Profit or the “bottom line”).

A limit order is an order to buy or sell a stock at a specific price or better. A buy limit order can only be executed at the limit price or lower, and a sell limit order can only be executed at the limit price or higher. A limit order is not guaranteed to execute. A limit order can only be filled if the stock’s market price reaches the limit price. While limit orders do not guarantee execution, they help ensure that an investor does not pay more than a pre-determined price for a stock.

A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the best available price. Generally, this type of order will be executed immediately. However, the price at which a market order will be executed is not guaranteed. It is important for investors to remember that the last-traded price is not necessarily the price at which a market order will be executed. In fast-moving markets, the price at which a market order will execute often deviates from the last-traded price or “real time” quote.

Margin is the amount of money supplied by an investor as a portion of the total funds needed to buy or sell a security, with the balance of required funds loaned to the investor by a broker, dealer, or other lender.

The Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) indicator is one of the easiest and most efficient momentum indicators you can get. It was developed by Gerald Appel in the late seventies.