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Stock Market Terminology

The investing terms that actually matter — explained without jargon, with real examples, and linked to free tools where they apply.

Most stock market glossaries are bad. They define a term in 20 words, give you a textbook formula, and move on — leaving you no better at actually using the concept than you were before. This is the opposite of that. Each term below links to a 1,400-word plain-English explainer with real examples, the gotchas nobody mentions, and how to actually apply it. Where the term has a free tool tied to it, the tool is one click away.

Valuation

PE Ratio
What you pay for every dollar of a company's annual earnings. The most-quoted valuation metric, and the most-misread.
EBITDA
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. Wall Street's favorite profit number, and Charlie Munger's least.
ROIC
Return on Invested Capital. The single best metric for how efficiently a business turns capital into profit.

Income & Dividends

Dividend Yield
Annual dividend divided by stock price. Easy to calculate, dangerously easy to misread when high.

Filings & Reporting

10-K
The annual report every US public company has to file with the SEC. Long, legalistic, and where the real story lives.

Bonds & Interest Rates

Risk-Free Rate
The return you get for taking no risk — the hurdle every other investment has to clear.
Yield Curve
The bond market's economic forecast in one line. Inverted = recession warning.
Fed Funds Rate
The single interest rate that ripples through every other rate in the world.
10-Year Treasury Yield
The most-watched interest rate in the world. Live data + full explainer.

Indices

S&P 500
The 500 largest US public companies, weighted by market cap. When people say 'the market,' this is usually it.

More terms coming. If there's a concept you wish was here, let us know via the export data page.

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