Finance

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Auction An auction is a process of buying or selling goods and services through bids, which are offers of a specific price or terms.
Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a formal court process that helps insolvent people and businesses wipe out or reorganize debt rather than face ruin.
Bretton Woods system Learn how the Bretton Woods system pegged global currencies to the US dollar and gold, why it collapsed in 1971, and how it shaped modern finance.
Central Bank A central bank is a financial institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union.
Collateral (finance) Collateral is a specific asset or property that a borrower pledges to a lender to secure repayment of a loan.
Compound Interest Compound interest adds earned interest back to your starting principal, causing savings and debts to grow faster over time.
Credit card debt Credit card debt is money owed to a card issuer after buying goods or services and not paying the balance immediately.
Debt collection Debt collection is the process of pursuing payments of money or other agreed value owed by a person or business to a creditor.
Deficit spending Deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a specific period, usually a single fiscal year.
Diversification (finance) Diversification spreads investments across different assets to reduce overall risk and volatility without hurting expected returns.
Dollar-cost averaging Dollar-cost averaging invests a fixed sum on a set schedule, automatically buying more units when prices fall and fewer when they rise.
Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble was a massive rise and sudden crash in the stock prices of internet companies during the late 1990s.
Economic bubble An economic bubble happens when asset prices surge far past their real fundamental value, driven by easy liquidity and market psychology.
Efficient Market Hypothesis The Efficient Market Hypothesis is an economic theory stating that asset prices always reflect all available information.
Expense ratio An expense ratio is the percentage of your total invested money taken out each year to cover running a fund.
Fiat Currency Fiat currency is money issued by a government that is not backed by gold, silver, or any other physical asset.
Garnishment Garnishment allows creditors to take money directly from a debtor's employer or bank to satisfy an unpaid debt or legal judgment.
Gold Standard A gold standard is a monetary system where the basic unit of currency is defined as a fixed quantity of gold.
Hedge Funds How hedge funds use leverage, short selling, and complex trading to make money whether financial markets rise or fall.
Index Fund An index fund mirrors a published market list instead of picking stocks, cutting fees and reliably outperforming most active managers over time.
Inflation Inflation is a general rise in the average price of goods and services across an entire economy.
Interest Interest is an extra fee a borrower pays to a lender on top of returning the original amount borrowed.
Investment An investment is the commitment of money or resources into an asset with the goal of gaining more money or value over time.
Lifestyle creep Lifestyle creep occurs when higher income leads to higher spending at the same rate, turning optional luxuries into perceived daily necessities.
Margin (finance) Margin is the collateral deposited with a broker to borrow funds or securities, enabling leverage while risking forced liquidation.
Market liquidity Market liquidity is a market feature that lets you buy or sell an asset quickly without forcing a major change in its price.
Market timing Market timing is an investment strategy where you buy or sell assets by trying to predict future market price movements.
Maturity (finance) Maturity is the exact date when a loan, bond, or other debt must be fully repaid to the lender.
Mental accounting Mental accounting explains how people separate identical money into subjective buckets, changing how they spend and evaluate financial decisions.
National debt of the United States The cumulative money borrowed by the US government to cover budget deficits, tracked as outstanding Treasury securities.
Net worth Net worth is the total value of everything you own minus everything you owe.
Open market operation An open market operation is the buying or selling of government bonds by a central bank to manage interest rates and liquidity.
Payday loan A payday loan is a small, short-term unsecured loan designed to be repaid in full when the borrower receives their next paycheck.
Personal Finance Fundamentals Personal finance covers budgeting, saving, and investing.
Ponzi Schemes Ponzi schemes are investment frauds that generate zero real profit, paying early backers using deposits taken from newer victims.
Prospect theory Prospect theory is an economic theory describing how real people make decisions involving risk and uncertainty.
Slot machine A slot machine picks its result with a random number generator the instant you press spin.
Speculation Speculation is trading assets purely to profit from short-term price swings rather than underlying business or commodity value.
Stock Market A stock market is a collection of buyers and sellers trading shares, which represent fractional ownership claims on companies.
Stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden, dramatic drop in share prices across a major part of the market, causing a massive loss of paper wealth.
Sunk cost A sunk cost is money, time, or effort that has already been spent and cannot be recovered by any future choice.
Tulip Mania In 1630s Holland, prices for rare tulip bulbs soared to the cost of luxury homes before collapsing in history's first asset bubble.
United States Treasury security United States Treasury securities are debt instruments issued by the government and used as cash equivalents worldwide.
US Dollar The US dollar is the official currency of the United States and the primary currency used in global trade and finance.
Usury Usury is the practice of lending money at interest rates that are unfairly high or exceed legal limits.
Volatility (finance) Volatility is a statistical measurement of how much an asset's price swings over time, calculated as the standard deviation of its returns.
Yield curve A yield curve is a line graph that compares the interest rates of bonds from the same issuer across different lengths of time.
Yield to maturity Yield to maturity calculates the total annual return on a bond held to the end, factoring in its market price, regular payments, and face value.