Market words, in plain English
Every term Kataly uses, in a sentence or two. Dotted-underlined words across the site show the same meaning when you hover or tap them.
- 13F
- A quarterly US filing showing what a large fund held at the end of the quarter, published up to 45 days later.
- 8-K
- A US filing a company must make when something important happens: a deal, a CEO change, results.
- basis point
- One hundredth of a percentage point. A yield going from 4.00% to 4.25% is up 25 basis points (bp).
- beat
- Results came in above the forecast. A miss is below.
- commitments of traders
- A weekly US report (CFTC) showing how big speculators are positioned in futures.
- correlation
- How closely two things move together: 1 = always together, 0 = unrelated, −1 = always opposite.
- credit spread
- Extra yield riskier companies pay over the government. It widens when lenders get nervous.
- dividend yield
- Dividends paid over the last 12 months as a % of today's price.
- dollar index
- The US dollar's value against a basket of other currencies.
- drawdown
- The drop from a high point in your account to the lowest point after it.
- EPS
- Earnings per share: a company's profit divided by its number of shares.
- ex-dividend date
- Buy before this date to get the next dividend. The price usually drops by about the dividend on that day.
- forecast
- The average of economists' predictions for a release, published before it comes out.
- Form 4
- The US filing an insider must make within two business days of trading their company's shares.
- funding rate
- A fee traders of crypto perpetual futures pay each other every few hours. Positive means buyers are paying, a sign they're crowded.
- inflation expectations
- What bond prices imply inflation will average over the coming years.
- insider
- A company's director or top officer. Their own buying and selling must be reported.
- liquidation
- When an exchange force-closes a borrowed position because losses ate the deposit. Many at once can speed up a move.
- net position
- Contracts betting on a rise minus contracts betting on a fall.
- normal move
- How much this stock usually moves in a day, measured over recent months. Today is compared with it.
- open interest
- The number of futures contracts still open. Rising open interest means more money is betting.
- profit factor
- Money won divided by money lost. Above 1 means winners outweigh losers.
- R-multiple
- A trade's result divided by what you risked (entry to stop). +2R means you made twice what you risked.
- range
- The lowest and highest price over a period. Near the top of its range means close to recent highs.
- real yield
- A bond's yield minus expected inflation. High real yields make gold, which pays nothing, less attractive.
- session
- The hours a market is open. Kataly marks whether a market is trading now, closed for the day, or not open yet.
- stablecoin
- A crypto token meant to stay at $1. More of them in circulation often means more cash ready to buy crypto.
- streak
- Days in a row the price has gone the same way.
- surprise
- The actual number minus the forecast. Markets react mostly to the surprise, not the number itself.
- unusual volume
- Far more shares traded than this stock's usual daily amount.
- yield
- The yearly return a bond pays, as a % of its price. When bond prices fall, yields rise.
- yield curve
- Long-term yields compared with short-term ones. When short-term pay more (inverted), it has often come before slowdowns.