I don’t know about you, mates, but I know jack-all about investing. Aside from the fact that it can be a tumultuous ride that (in the long term) can lead to some serious financial gains, I’m pretty much clueless.
See, after I left school, I didn’t study finance. I did a science degree and then followed it up with journalism studies and, news flash, neither are conducive to making bank and keeping that cash flow going with savvy money moves in the investing world.
But one way around feeling like a bit of a dumb-dumb (according to our mates at online trading platform eToro) is to have some casual investing terms up your sleeve the next time that one friend from high school talks you into going to a summer party with, oh, everyone else you went to school with. They make you sound smarter, and that’s just a fact.
Blow those commerce grads and engineers (they just always know things about stuff, don’t they?) out of the water with these fancy-sounding investing terms that actually have very simple meanings.
“Bearish” And “Bullish”
Bearish is a term used when stocks or markets are falling, and it’s the opposite of bullish (which is, you guessed it, when the market is on the up). Plus, they’re easy to remember and you also won’t forget what they actually mean.
How to use: “ugh, how about the market right now — bit bearish, isn’t it?”
IPO
IPO, or “initial public offering” will be used when shares in a company are first sold to the public.
How to use: “I’ve had some recent luck with a couple of IPOs but let’s not talk about money — it’s a party!”
Hedge
The term hedge is exactly what you’d think and is used to describe investing in such a way that the risk of loss is lower.
How to use: “Since the market is so bullish right now, I’ve been looking into a few IPOs but am mindful that hedging is always safer, you know?”
Market Cap
The market cap is calculated by taking the price of the share by the number of outstanding shares, thus giving you the market value of a company.
How to use: “I’ve got my eye on a few investments with an impressive market cap.”
Earnings Season
Every quarter, US stocks will announce how they performed in the previous quarter with revenues and earnings. This is known as earnings season.
How to use: “Welcome to earnings season, mates!”
Dividend
This is an amount paid by a company, most commonly annually, to its shareholders out of its profits. Basically, it’s part of the gains.
How to use: “After the year we’ve all had, we’re all just hanging out for those dividends, amiright?”
