Warifin Financial Glossary

A unit of ownership in a company, also called a share.

e.g. Owning one share of Apple makes you a tiny part-owner of Apple.

A fund that holds many investments and trades like a stock.

e.g. An S&P 500 ETF holds 500 large U.S. companies in one buy.

The short code identifying a stock on an exchange.

e.g. AAPL is Apple's ticker on the Nasdaq.

Total value of a company: share price × number of shares.

e.g. A $200 stock with 1 billion shares has a $200B market cap.

A group of similar companies, like Technology or Financials.

Spreading investments across different companies, sectors or asset types.

How much and how fast prices move up and down.

The drop from a peak to a trough in an investment's value.

Share price divided by earnings per share.

e.g. A $100 stock with $5 earnings per share has a P/E of 20.

P/E based on expected future earnings.

P/E divided by earnings growth rate.

Market cap divided by revenue; useful when profits are negative.

How fast a company's sales are increasing, usually year-over-year.

Earnings per share — profit divided by number of shares.

Profit kept from each dollar of sales, as a percentage.

Return on equity — profit generated from shareholders' equity.

Operating cash flow minus capital spending.

Total debt divided by shareholders' equity.

An estimate of what an asset is really worth, based on fundamentals.

The cushion between price and estimated value.

A portion of a company's profits paid to shareholders.

Annual dividend per share ÷ share price.

Dividend ÷ profit; very high can be unsustainable.

Annual fund fee as a percentage of your investment.

When multiple ETFs share the same holdings, reducing diversification.

A U.S. regulatory report of institutional holdings, filed quarterly and delayed.

The West African CFA franc, the BRVM's currency.

A licensed broker for BRVM trades.

Prices making higher highs and higher lows overall.

Prices making lower highs and lower lows overall.

A price level where buying tends to appear.

A price level where selling tends to appear.

Price moving beyond support or resistance — real or false.

Open, High, Low, Close — the four prices a candle shows.

The average of past prices over a set period; smooths noise.

Relative Strength Index — a 0–100 measure of price speed and extent.

Compares two moving averages to reveal momentum shifts.

Average True Range — measures how much price typically moves.

Volume-Weighted Average Price.

Borrowed buying power that magnifies gains and losses.

A planned exit price to limit a losing trade.

How much capital you risk on a single trade.

The difference between expected price and the price actually filled.

Return over a fixed window ending at each point in time.

Tendencies for certain periods to be stronger or weaker on average.

The largest peak-to-trough decline in the history studied.

Giving up one desirable thing to gain another.

An event or news item that could move a stock or sector.

A sector that moves with the economic cycle, like industrials.

Net money moving into a fund or asset.

Net money leaving a fund or asset.

When price and flows disagree — a potential warning.

The risk of rare, severe outcomes at the edge of the distribution.

Gross Domestic Product — the total value of goods and services produced.

The cost of borrowing money, set by central banks and markets.

Reporting earnings above or below analyst expectations.

A company's forward outlook for revenue or profit.

Using profits to fund further growth instead of paying dividends.

The risk that high expectations already in the price get disappointed.

How your money is divided across assets or sectors.

Trimming winners and adding to laggards to return to your target allocation.

A cycle phase where informed buyers build positions after a decline.

A cycle phase where sellers distribute holdings to late buyers near a top.

An estimate of how likely an outcome is (e.g. 0–100%).

How much trust to place in an estimate.

The question or instruction you give an AI.