Saturday, April 28, 2012

Finance Glossary

Hedge Funds: hedge funds are investment funds actively managed for a limited number of investors and institutions, using a wide range of investment strategies, methods and tools, such as short selling, derivatives, swaps and arbitrage. Hedge funds usually require a rather high minimum investment, and are managed by professionals charging management and performance-based fees.

Overweight: being overweight means that an investor’s portfolio holds more of a particular type of stock compared to the weight of that type of stock, in the relevant index. For instance, if an investor’s portfolio is comprised of 30% Growth stocks, and that Growth stocks represent 20% of the associated index, the portfolio is referred to as ’10% overweight’ in Growth stocks.


Spread: the spread for a security or asset is the difference between the current ask and the current bid price.

Volatility: volatility is a measure of risk for a security. It refers to the standard deviation of a security’s price over a certain period of time. High volatility means that the price of the security tends to move up and down quickly over a determined period of time, making it more risky.