Glossary

Price

What one share costs right now. Updated every few minutes during market hours (15-minute delay from real exchanges).

EXAMPLEIf AAPL is $200, you'd need $200 to buy one share. To buy 10 shares costs $2,000.

Market cap

The total value of a company's stock — price × number of shares. The headline measure of how big a company is.

EXAMPLEApple's market cap is ~$3 trillion (3,000,000 × $1 million each in a sense). Companies are often grouped as mega-cap (>$200B), large-cap ($10B-$200B), mid-cap ($2B-$10B), small-cap (<$2B).

P/E ratio (Price-to-Earnings)

How much investors are paying for $1 of the company's annual profit. Lower means cheaper relative to earnings; higher means investors expect more growth.

EXAMPLEP/E of 15 means investors pay $15 for every $1 the company makes per share. Typical S&P 500 P/E is around 20. P/E > 30 = expensive (growth expectations baked in). P/E < 10 = often a value play or a stock with concerns.

Forward P/E

Like P/E but uses NEXT YEAR's expected earnings instead of last year's. A more useful number for growing companies.

EPS (Earnings Per Share)

How much profit the company makes per outstanding share. Bigger EPS = more profit per share you own.

EXAMPLEEPS of $5 means the company earned $5 per share last year. Beat-the-estimate EPS reports often move the stock 5-10% on earnings day.

RSI (Relative Strength Index)

A momentum gauge from 0 to 100. Below 30 = oversold (people sold too aggressively, often a buying setup). Above 70 = overbought (the stock has run too hot, may pull back).

EXAMPLERSI of 25 on a beaten-down stock = potential bounce setup. RSI of 85 after a 30% run = caution, may be due for a pullback.

Moving Average Crossover (50/200)

A classic Wall-Street trend signal. When the 50-day average price crosses ABOVE the 200-day average, it's a 'golden cross' — a long-term bullish signal. When it crosses BELOW, it's a 'death cross' — bearish.

EXAMPLEGolden cross on NVDA in 2023 preceded a multi-year rally. Death cross on retail stocks in 2022 preceded the sector slump.

52-week high / low

The highest and lowest price in the past year. Stocks near 52-week highs are often in strong uptrends; near 52-week lows can be value plays or signaling trouble.

Volume + volume surge

How many shares trade hands. Unusual volume (2x+ the 20-day average) often signals something is happening — news, earnings, or big-money activity.

Revenue growth

How fast the company's TOP-LINE sales are growing year-over-year. The fuel for everything else.

EXAMPLE30% revenue growth means the company sold 30% more in dollars than last year. Tech companies often have 20-50% growth; mature companies 5-10%.

Earnings growth

How fast PROFITS are growing year-over-year. Better than revenue growth if you want to know the business is actually getting more profitable.

Profit margin

What percentage of revenue ends up as profit. Higher = more efficient business. Software companies have 20-40% margins; supermarkets 2-3%.

Analyst rating

Wall Street equity analysts' consensus opinion. Aggregated as 'Strong Buy / Buy / Hold / Sell / Strong Sell.' Take with a grain of salt — analysts are often late.

Price target

Where Wall Street analysts think the stock will trade 12 months out. We show the AVERAGE of all analyst targets. If price is below the average target, there's 'upside' to the consensus view.

Earnings calendar / earnings date

Public companies report quarterly. The earnings date is the day. Big stock moves are common on earnings (5-15%+ either way). 'Beat earnings' = beat the Wall Street estimate.

Insider trading (the legal kind)

Executives + board members are REQUIRED to disclose when they buy or sell their company's stock. Insider BUYS are often bullish; insider sells are noisy (often diversification / vesting).

Sector

A category of similar businesses (Technology, Healthcare, Financials, Energy, etc.). Sectors rotate in and out of favor — money flows from one to another based on the economic cycle.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund)

A basket of many stocks you can buy as one ticker. SPY tracks the S&P 500. QQQ tracks Nasdaq-100. Cheaper + simpler than picking individual stocks.

Bid-ask spread

The tiny gap between what buyers will pay (bid) and what sellers want (ask). On big stocks like AAPL, it's 1 penny; on illiquid small-caps, it can be much wider.

Drawdown

The drop from a recent peak. Used to size up risk. A 'max drawdown' of 25% means at some point you'd have been down 25% from your best result.

Watchlist

A list of tickers you want to keep an eye on. Doesn't mean you own them — just that you're watching.

Price alerts

Set a target price; we notify you when the stock hits it. Useful for catching entry/exit setups without staring at the screen. (Coming with Pro)

Not investment advice

Everything here is INFORMATION, not advice. We're not licensed advisors. You're responsible for your own trades and your own risk.