Financial Glossary

APR is the yearly cost of borrowing expressed as a percentage, combining interest and fees.

An asset is something that holds economic value, like real estate, stocks, or cash.

A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits, makes loans, and provides financial services.

A beneficiary is the person or entity designated to receive benefits or proceeds, often in insurance or estate contexts.

A capital gain is the profit earned when selling an investment (or asset) for more than its purchase price.

Credit refers to borrowing money or having the trust to pay later.

A debit card is a payment card that deducts money directly from your checking account when used.

Debt is money owed by a person or entity to another, often with interest.

Executive function includes skills like planning, self-control, focus, and managing multiple tasks.

An expense is money spent or costs incurred in the course of living, working, or running a business.

FAANG is an acronym for five leading technology stocks: Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet).

A factor market is where firms purchase the productive inputs (like labor, capital, land) needed for producing goods and services.

These are the routine practices, values, and rules people use to manage money in daily life.

A fixed cost is a regular expense that typically stays the same regardless of usage or activity.

FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a form students and families complete to determine eligibility for federal, state, school-based, and sometimes private financial aid.

A goal is a desired financial outcome or target you plan and work toward.

A grant is money awarded (often by a government or organization) that does not need to be repaid.

A home improvement loan is credit (loan or line) used to make repairs, upgrades, or remodels to a home.

An index-linked bond is a bond whose interest payments and/or principal are adjusted in line with a specific price index (typically inflation).

Interbank rate is the interest rate at which banks lend to one another over short periods (often overnight).

Jobless claims count how many people apply for unemployment benefits in a period — a useful signal of labor market changes.

The K-Percent Rule is a monetary policy guideline proposing that central banks should expand the money supply by a fixed percentage rate annually, regardless of economic cycles.

Labor market flexibility is the capacity of employers and the labor force to adjust wages, working hours, hiring, and firing in response to changing economic conditions.

Manipulation is the practice of using deceptive or artificial tactics to influence the price or perception of a financial asset for one’s advantage.

Negative growth occurs when a business, sector, or an economy contracts - i.e. its output, sales, or GDP declines over a given period.

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is the provincial regulator that enforces securities and capital markets law in Ontario, Canada.

The Peter Principle is a management idea that in a hierarchy, people tend to be promoted until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent.

Qualifying ratios are key financial metrics lenders use to determine whether a borrower can afford a loan by comparing debts to income.

Rate of Change (ROC) is a technical analysis tool that calculates the percentage change in price between a current period and a prior period. It is expressed as: ROC=Price in N periods agoCurrent Price−Price in N periods ago​×100% Traders use ROC to identify the speed at which prices are changing. A high positive ROC indicates accelerating upward momentum; a large negative ROC suggests accelerating […]

The secondary market is where investors buy and sell securities that have already been issued, rather than new ones.

A take-out loan is a long-term financing commitment intended to replace short-term or interim financing, often used in real estate or large projects.

An underwater mortgage occurs when a homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the current market value of their home.

VAMI is an index that tracks the performance of a hypothetical investment (e.g. starting at $1,000), accounting for returns and reinvested disbursements net of fees.

A W-shaped recovery (also called a double-dip recession) describes a pattern where the economy falls into recession, then recovers briefly, falls again, and finally recovers.

X-efficiency is the degree to which a firm minimizes waste and maximizes productivity under real-world conditions, especially when competitive pressures are weak.

Year-over-year (YOY) compares a company’s or economy’s performance in one period with the same period one year earlier.

A zero-bound interest rate is the situation when a central bank’s short-term nominal interest rate has been driven down to zero (or very close to it), limiting conventional monetary policy tools.