Annualized rate of return

The average annual return over a period of years, taking into account the effect of compounding. Annualized rate of return also can be called compound growth rate.

Alpha

Beta

A measurement of volatility where 1 is neutral; above 1 is more volatile; and less than 1 is less volatile.

Capital gain

The difference between a security’s purchase price and its selling price, when the difference is positive.

Capital gains ex-date

The date that a shareholder is no longer eligible for a capital gain distribution that has been declared by a security or mutual fund.

Capitalization

The market value of a company, calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding by the price per share.

Cash equivalent

A short-term money-market instrument, such as a Treasury bill or repurchase agreement, of such high liquidity and safety that it is easily converted into cash.

Common stock

Securities that represent ownership in a corporation; must be issued by a corporation.

Diversification

The process of owning different investments that tend to perform well at different times in order to reduce the effects of volatility in a portfolio, and also increase the potential for increasing returns.

Dividend

A dividend is a portion of a company’s profit paid to common and preferred shareholders. Dividends provide an incentive to own stock in stable companies even if they are not experiencing much growth. Companies are not required to pay dividends.

Dividend yield

Annual percentage of return earned by a mutual fund. The yield is determined by dividing the amount of the annual dividends per share by the current net asset value or public offering price.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow)

The most commonly used indicator of stock market performance, based on prices of 30 actively traded blue chip stocks, primarily major industrial companies. The Average is the sum of the current market price of 30 major industrial companies’ stocks divided by a number that has been adjusted to take into account stocks splits and changes in stock composition.

EPS

The portion of a company’s profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. EPS serves as an indicator of a company’s profitability.

Ex-Dividend

The interval between the announcement and the payment of the next dividend for a stock.

Ex-Dividend date

The date on which a stock goes ex-dividend. Typically about three weeks before the dividend is paid to shareholders of record.

Expense ratio

The ratio between a mutual fund’s operating expenses for the year and the average value of its net assets.

European Green Deal

The European Green Deal is a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050.

Federal Funds Rate (Fed Funds Rate)

The interest rate charged by banks with excess reserves at a Federal Reserve district bank to banks needing overnight loans to meet reserve requirements. The most sensitive indicator of the direction of interest rates, since it is set daily by the market, unlike the prime rate and the discount rate, which are periodically changed by banks and by the Federal Reserve Board.

FANG

Refers to the stocks of four popular American technology companies: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet.

Inflation

A rise in the prices of goods and services, often equated with loss of purchasing power.

Median Market Cap

The midpoint of market capitalization (market price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding) of the stocks in a portfolio, where half the stocks have higher market capitalization and half have lower.

Money market mutual fund

A short-term investment that seeks to protect principal and generate income by investing in Treasury bills, CDs with maturities less than one year and other conservative investments.

MSCI EAFE Index

The MSCI EAFE Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index, designed to measure developed market equity performance excluding the U.S. and Canada, consisting of 21 stock markets in Europe, Australasia, and the Far
East.

MSCI Emerging Markets Index

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index, designed to measure equity market performance of emerging markets, consisting of 24 emerging country indices.

MSCI ACWI Index

The MSCI ACWI Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index, designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets, consisting of 23 developed country indices,
including the U.S, and 26 emerging market country indices.

MSCI ACWI ex US Small Cap Index

The MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization
weighted index, designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets excluding the U.S. market, consisting of 46 country indices.

MSCI ACWI ex USA Index

The MSCI ACWI ex USA Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted
index, designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets excluding the U.S.

NASDAQ

National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system, which is owned and operated by the National Association of Securities Dealers. NASDAQ is a computerized system that provides brokers and dealers with price quotations for securities traded over-the-counter as well as for many New York Stock Exchange listed securities.

Net Asset Value per share (NAV)

The current dollar value of a single mutual fund share; also known as share price. The fund’s NAV is calculated daily by taking the fund’s total assets, subtracting the fund’s liabilities, and dividing by the number of shares outstanding. The NAV does not include the sales charge. The process of calculating the NAV is called pricing.

P/B Ratio

The price per share of a stock divided by its book value (net worth) per share. For a stock portfolio, the ratio is the weighted average price-to-book ratio of the stocks it holds.

Preferred stock

A class of stock with a fixed dividend that has preference over a company’s common stock in the payment of dividends and the liquidation of assets. There are several kinds of preferred stock, among them adjustable-rate and convertible.

Price-to-earnings (P/E) Ratio

A stock’s price divided by its earnings per share, which indicates how much investors are paying for a company’s earning power.

P/E Ratio (1 yr trailing) (long position)

Price of a stock divided by its earnings from the latest year.

P/E Ratio (1 yr forecast)

Price of a stock divided by its projected earnings for the coming year.

R2

The percentage of a fund’s movements that result from movements in the index ranging from 0 to 100. A fund with an R2 of 100 means that 100 percent of the fund’s movement can completely be explained by movements in the fund’s external index benchmark.

Sharpe Ratio

A risk-adjusted measure that measures reward per unit of risk. The higher the sharpe ratio, the better. The numerator is the difference between the Fund’s annualized return and the annualized return of the risk-free instrument (T-Bills).

Standard & Poor's Index

Broad-based measurement of changes in stock market conditions based on the average performance of 500 widely held common stocks commonly known as the Standard & Poor’s 500 or S&P 500.

Standard Deviation

A statistical measure of the degree to which an individual value in a probability distribution tends to vary from the mean of the distribution.

Statement of additional information (SAI)

The supplementary document to a prospectus that contains more detailed information about a mutual fund; also known as ‘Part B’ of the prospectus.

Tracking Error

The active risk of the portfolio. It determines the annualized standard deviation of the excess returns between the portfolio and the benchmark.

Turnover Ratio

Percentage of holdings in a mutual fund that are sold in a specified period.

Value investing

A strategy whereby investors purchase equity securities that they believe are selling below estimated true value. The investor can profit by buying these securities then selling them once they appreciate to their real value.

VIX

VIX is the ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s CBOE Volatility Index, a popular measure of the stock market’s expectation of volatility based on S&P 500 index options.

Wtd. Avg. Market Cap

Most indexes are constructed by weighting the market capitalization of each stock on the index. In such an index, larger companies account for a greater portion of the index. An example is the S&P 500 Index.

Yield Curve

Ma line that plots yields (interest rates) of bonds having equal credit quality but differing maturity dates. The slope of the yield curve gives an idea of future interest rate changes and economic activity.

12b-1 fee

A mutual fund fee, named for the SEC rule that permits it, used to pay for broker-dealer compensation and other distribution costs. If a fund has a 12b-1 fee, it will be disclosed in the fee table of the fund’s prospectus.

30-day SEC yield (date)

Represents net investment income earned by a fund over a 30-day period, expressed as an annual percentage rate based on the fund’s share price at the end of the 30-day period. The 30-day yield should be regarded as an estimate of investment income and may not equal the fund’s actual income distribution rate.