Category: Investments glossary

The relative strength index (RSI) is a momentum indicator used in technical analysis that measures the magnitude of recent price changes to evaluate overbought or oversold conditions in the price of a stock or other asset. The RSI is displayed as an oscillator (a line graph that moves between two extremes) and can have a reading from 0 to 100. The indicator was originally developed by J. Welles Wilder Jr. and introduced in his seminal 1978 book, New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems.

A public good is a product that an individual can consume without reducing its availability to others and of which no one is deprived. Examples of public goods include law enforcement, national defense, sewer systems, public parks, and the air we breathe. As those examples reveal, public goods are almost always publicly financed.

A partnership is a formal arrangement by two or more parties to manage and operate a business and share its profits.

A partnership is a formal arrangement by two or more parties to manage and operate a business and share its profits.

A global bond is a type of bond that can be traded in a domestic or European market. It is a bond issued and traded outside the country where the currency of the bond is denominated. This type of bond is issued by a non-European company but sells in a European country or any other foreign market. For example, a U.S. corporation can issue a bond in Europe. These bonds are sold in various maturities and credit qualities.

The health insurance marketplace is a platform which offers insurance plans to individuals, families or small businesses. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 established the marketplace as a means to achieve maximum compliance with the mandate that all Americans carry some form of health insurance. Many states offer their own marketplaces, while the federal government manages an exchange open to residents of other states.

A fund of funds (FOF)—also known as a multi-manager investment—is a pooled investment fund that invests in other types of funds. In other words, its portfolio contains different underlying portfolios of other funds. These holdings replace any investing directly in bonds, stocks, and other types of securities.

Employment Insurance (EI) is an unemployment insurance program in Canada that allows individuals who have recently lost a job to receive temporary financial assistance. Employment insurance can also be extended to individuals who are unable to work because of illness or who are caring for a young child or a seriously ill family member. In addition to financial assistance, the program assists the unemployed with job search services.

A liquidity trap is a contradictory economic situation in which interest rates are very low and savings rates are high, rendering monetary policy ineffective. First described by economist John Maynard Keynes, during a liquidity trap, consumers choose to avoid bonds and keep their funds in cash savings because of the prevailing belief that interest rates could soon rise (which would push bond prices down). Because bonds have an inverse relationship to interest rates, many consumers do not want to hold an asset with a price that is expected to decline. At the same time, central bank efforts to spur economic activity are hampered as they are unable to lower interest rates further to incentivize investors and consumers. read more

A take-out loan is a type of long-term financing that replaces short-term interim financing. Such loans are usually mortgages with fixed payments that are amortizing. Institutions that issue take-out loans are normally large financial conglomerates, such as insurance or investment companies, while banks or savings and loan companies usually issue short-term loans, such as a construction loan.