Online investment guide since 2001
Investing, explained in plain English.
A free encyclopedia of investing, finance and economics. Clear definitions, honest sources, interactive explainers, and never a word of buy-or-sell advice.
44 terms and growing · browse the full A-Z
Term of the day
Net Worth
Net worth is the value of everything you own minus everything you owe. It is the standard snapshot of a household's or company's financial position at a moment in time.
Browse by topic
Eight knowledge clusters, from first principles to the people who shaped the markets.
Investing Basics
The foundations: what investing is, how markets work, and the core concepts (risk, return, compounding and diversification) that every other term builds on.
Stocks & Equities
How shares of companies work: what a stock is, how it is valued, how it trades on an exchange, and the vocabulary used to describe equity markets.
Bonds & Fixed Income
Debt instruments explained: bonds, yields, coupons, credit ratings and how interest rates move fixed-income markets.
Funds & ETFs
Pooled investing: mutual funds, index funds and exchange-traded funds, how they are built, what they cost and how they differ.
Crypto & Digital Assets
Descriptive explainers of cryptocurrencies, blockchains, tokens and the terminology of digital-asset markets.
Economics & Markets
The bigger picture: inflation, interest rates, central banks, recessions and the economic indicators that move markets.
Personal Finance
Money concepts outside the market: budgeting terms, credit, savings vehicles, retirement accounts and tax vocabulary, explained, never prescribed.
Famous Investors
Biographies of the investors and business leaders who shaped modern markets, a tradition on Investing Value since 2001, when this site published its first investor profiles.
Recently reviewed
All terms →Definition
Inflation
Inflation is a sustained rise in the general level of prices, which means each unit of currency buys less over time. It is usually measured with a consumer price index.
6 min read
Definition
Value Investing
Value investing is an approach that seeks to buy securities for less than an estimate of their intrinsic worth, using fundamental analysis and a deliberate margin of safety.
6 min read
Definition
Compound Interest
Compound interest is interest calculated on both the original amount and the interest already earned, so a balance grows faster over time than with simple interest.
6 min read
Definition
Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)
An ETF is a pooled investment fund whose shares trade on a stock exchange throughout the day, typically tracking an index of stocks, bonds or other assets.
5 min read
Definition
Stock (Equity)
A stock is a security that represents partial ownership of a company. Owning shares entitles the holder to a slice of the company's assets and profits, proportional to the number of shares held.
6 min read
Definition
Bond
A bond is a loan in security form: the buyer lends money to a government or company, which promises to pay periodic interest and return the principal on a set maturity date.
6 min read
We explain, we never advise
Every entry is descriptive. No buy or sell calls, no return promises, no “top picks”. Just how things work.
Sources you can check
Figures and claims carry references, and every entry shows when it was last reviewed.
A guide since 2001
InvestingValue.com has been an online investment guide for over two decades. See our editorial policy.