Bonds: In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. The most common types of bonds include municipal bonds and corporate bonds.

Common Stocks: Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security.

Correlated/Correlation: When two sets of data are strongly linked together we say they have a High Correlation. The word Correlation is made of Co- (meaning “together”), and Relation. Correlation is Positive when the values increase together, and. Correlation is Negative when one value decreases as the other increases.

Demographics: Demography is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging, and death.

Depreciation: In accountancy, depreciation refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, the actual decrease in value of fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wears, and second, the allocation in accounting statements of the original cost of the assets to periods in which the assets are used.

Direct Ownership: Direct Ownership means ownership by an owner but excluding any such ownership with or through Associates and Affiliates of such owner. The terms “directly own” and “directly owned” have correlative meanings.

Diversification/Diversified: Portfolio diversification means investing in multiple different asset classes and risk levels in an effort to mitigate overall investment risk.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur.

Interest Expense: Interest expense relates to the cost of borrowing money. It is the price that a lender charges a borrower for the use of the lender’s money. On the income statement, interest expense can represent the cost of borrowing money from banks, bond investors, and other sources.

Investment Portfolio: An investment portfolio is a basket of assets that can hold stocks, bonds, cash and more. Investors aim for a return by mixing these securities in a way that reflects their risk tolerance and financial goals.

Investment Vehicles: An investment vehicle is a product used by investors to gain positive returns. Investment vehicles can be low risk, such as certificates of deposit (CDs) or bonds, or they can carry a greater degree of risk, such as stocks, options, and futures.

Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS): A mortgage-backed security is a type of asset-backed security which is secured by a mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are aggregated and sold to a group of individuals that securitizes, or packages, the loans together into a security that investors can buy.

Mutual Funds: A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. These investors may be retail or institutional in nature. Mutual funds have advantages and disadvantages compared to direct investing in individual securities. 

Paper Investments: A number of different kinds of popular investments in the United States qualify as paper investments. These include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposits, and money market accounts. Shares of stock are pieces of paper that relate a certain percentage of ownership in a publicly-traded company.

Private Placements: Private placement is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. Generally, these investors include friends and family, accredited investors, and institutional investors.

Shares: In financial markets, a share is a unit used as mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. The owner of shares in the company is a shareholder of the corporation. A share is an indivisible unit of capital, expressing the ownership relationship between the company and the shareholder.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI): Socially responsible investing, or social investment, also known as sustainable, socially conscious, “green” or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about social change regarded as positive by proponents.

Stocks: Stock of a corporation, is all of the shares into which ownership of the corporation is divided. Shares are collectively known as “stock”. A single share of the stock represents fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares.

Stock Trading: Stock trading, also known as refers to the buying and selling of shares in a particular company; if you own the stock, you own a piece of the company.

Volatility: In finance, volatility is the degree of variation of a trading price series over time, usually measured by the standard deviation of logarithmic returns. Historic volatility measures a time series of past market prices.