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What is Disinflation? Disinflation is a term used for an interim slowdown of inflation rate. For example, a reduction of inflation growth from 3.5%...

What is Collateralized Mortgage Obligation (CMO)? A CMO is a mortgage bond that consists of a large number of different individual mortgages bundle...

What is Above Full Employment Equilibrium? Above Full Employment Equilibrium happens when an economy is basically doing more than it realistically...

What are lenders? Lenders are parties which can be individuals, groups or institutions that are engaged in making liquid funds that they either own...

What is interest? In order to create an incentive for a lender, a borrower usually repays debt with interest, a percentage of overpayment for the l...

What is AMBAC? AMBAC stands for American Municipal Bond Assurance Corporation. It provides insurance for municipalities that sell muni bonds, such...

How do you judge the performance of an index fund? For index funds, they're really just a reflection of the stocks and bonds they, uh... reflect. S...

What is Bond Amortization? Bond amortization is simply the spreading out of the cost of the bond over time. Bonds have amortization schedules and t...

NAV isn't a cool new navigation app...it's how mutual fund shares are valued or priced at the end of each trading day.

What is amortization? Amortization tracks the decline in value of a contract or service, usually paid for in advance. You received $10,000 in advan...

What is a basis point? Basis points are how changes in financial securities are described. “The stock dropped 100 points” actually means that t...

What is inflation, and if we poke it with a pin, will it pop?

What is the process of a loan? Collateral. Do you have it? The bank lending you money wants to be sure that A) they get paid back, and B) they char...

When you realize a gain or loss, it means that you turn an investment into cash. Thrilling, we know.

What is the Relative Strength Index? The Relative Strength Index is a technical analysis indicator that measures trading direction trends over the...

What is a Holding Company? A holding company is a company that controls enough voting stake in another company to have control over operations. Usu...

Tax basis is your cost for assessing how much you owe in taxes, and is determined by multiplying your gains by your tax rate.

What is Cost Basis? For accounting purposes, the cost basis is the amount invested at the time of asset purchase. That is subtracted from the sale...

What is the loan-to-value ratio? Loan us some of your time and watch this handy video.

With a reverse mortgage, payments go in the opposite direction of a normal mortgage, where you pledge your home as an asset, and receive $ each month.