Financial Glossary

Clear explanations of the signals, market language and symbols used throughout our research.

Showing 70 of 70 terms

1

1M / 6M returnDashboard: The percentage change in an asset’s price over the past one month or six months.

A

AlphaMarket: The return an investment produces above or below the return expected from its benchmark and level of risk.
Annualised volatilityDashboard: An estimate of how widely an asset’s returns fluctuate over a year. A higher figure generally means greater price risk.
Asset allocationPortfolio: The percentage of a portfolio assigned to different assets or asset classes, such as equities, Bitcoin, gold and cash.
Asset classPortfolio: A group of investments with similar characteristics. The dashboard groups assets into equities, crypto, gold, defensives, geographies and cash.

B

Bear marketMarket: A prolonged period of falling prices, commonly defined for equities as a decline of at least 20% from a recent high.
BearishDashboard: A view that an asset or market is more likely to weaken than strengthen.
BenchmarkMarket: An index or reference portfolio used to compare an investment’s performance, such as the S&P 500 for US equities.
BetaMarket: A measure of how sensitively an investment tends to move relative to a market benchmark. Above 1 usually means larger moves.
Bitcoin on-chain scoreDashboard: A −1 to +1 composite signal assessing Bitcoin network activity and investor behaviour recorded on its blockchain.
BondMarket: A loan made to a government or company that normally pays interest and returns its principal at maturity.
Bond-market volatility (MOVE)Dashboard: The MOVE Index measures expected volatility in the US Treasury market. Higher readings imply greater uncertainty about rates and bonds.
BreadthDashboard: How widely a market move is shared. The dashboard considers how many S&P 500 members trade above their 200-day moving average.
Broad money supplyDashboard: A wide measure of money held by households and businesses, including cash and bank deposits. Growth can support global liquidity.
Bull marketMarket: A sustained period of rising asset prices, commonly associated with improving confidence and economic expectations.
BullishDashboard: A view that an asset or market is more likely to strengthen than weaken.

C

Capital gainMarket: The profit realised or unrealised when an asset rises above its purchase price.
CapitulationMarket: Heavy, urgent selling as investors abandon positions, sometimes occurring near the end of a sharp market fall.
CarryMarket: The return from holding an asset before price changes, such as bond interest, dividends or a currency interest-rate advantage.
Cash raisePortfolio: A reduction in invested positions that increases the portfolio’s cash allocation to lower overall market risk.
Central-bank balance sheetDashboard: The assets and liabilities held by a central bank. Expansion can inject liquidity; contraction can withdraw it.
CorrelationMarket: A measure from −1 to +1 describing how closely two assets move together. Lower correlation may improve diversification.
Credit spreadMarket: The extra yield a borrower pays above a safer government bond. Widening spreads often indicate rising financial stress.
Cyclical assetsMarket: Investments that tend to perform best when economic growth accelerates, such as industrial, consumer-discretionary and financial shares.

D

DefensivesPortfolio: Assets or sectors expected to be more resilient during weak growth or market stress, including utilities, government bonds and some currencies.
DiversificationPortfolio: Spreading capital across investments whose risks differ, reducing dependence on any single asset or outcome.
DrawdownMarket: The percentage fall from an investment’s previous peak to its subsequent low.
DurationMarket: A bond’s sensitivity to interest-rate changes. Longer-duration bonds generally move more when yields change.
DXYSymbol: The US Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of major currencies. A stronger dollar can tighten global liquidity.

E

ETFMarket: Exchange-traded fund: a basket of investments that trades on an exchange like a share.

F

Financial conditionsDashboard: The overall ease or difficulty of obtaining finance, combining factors such as interest rates, credit spreads, currencies and asset prices.
FX reservesDashboard: Foreign-currency assets held by central banks. Changes can affect currency stability and the amount of liquidity in global markets.

G

Global equities proxyDashboard: A broad representation of worldwide share-market performance used as one input to the Global Liquidity Proxy.
Global interest-rates aggregateDashboard: A combined measure of interest-rate conditions across major economies. Higher rates generally restrain liquidity and risk-taking.
Global Liquidity ProxyDashboard: Acutis Capital’s weekly model of money and credit available globally, combining money supply, central-bank, reserve, market and rate inputs.

H

High betaMarket: An asset expected to make larger moves than its benchmark, both upwards and downwards.
High yield (HYG)Symbol: Below-investment-grade corporate bonds, represented in the live market by HYG. Their performance can indicate appetite for credit risk.
Hybrid regimeDashboard: A mixed market environment in which some macro or trend signals are positive and others negative, leading to reduced risk exposure.

I

InflationMarket: A sustained rise in the general price level, reducing the purchasing power of money over time.

L

LeverageMarket: The use of borrowing or derivatives to amplify investment exposure. It increases both potential gains and potential losses.
LiquidityMarket: Either the ease of trading an asset without moving its price, or the availability of money and credit in the financial system.
Low volatilityPortfolio: An investment approach designed to produce smaller price swings than a broad risk portfolio, usually through sizing and diversification.

M

Market capitalisationMarket: The total market value of a company’s shares, calculated as share price multiplied by shares outstanding.
MomentumMarket: The tendency for assets that have recently risen or fallen to continue moving in the same direction for a period.
Moving average (50dma / 200dma)Dashboard: The average closing price over 50 or 200 trading days, used to smooth daily moves and identify medium- or long-term trends.

N

NeutralDashboard: A stance indicating neither a sufficiently strong bullish nor bearish signal.

O

OverweightPortfolio: Holding more of an asset than its benchmark or normal target because its prospects are judged relatively attractive.

P

Portfolio exposurePortfolio: The proportion of a portfolio affected by an asset, asset class or market risk. Current exposure may be below its maximum target.

R

Rate of changeDashboard: The change in a gauge since its previous reading. Dashboard gauge changes are shown in points, not percentages.
Real returnMarket: An investment return after accounting for inflation.
Relative Strength ScoreDashboard: A −100 to +100 ranking that compares an asset with others in its group using trend, momentum, carry and volatility inputs.
RebalancingPortfolio: Buying and selling holdings to bring a portfolio back towards its intended allocation.
Reverse repo (RRP)Dashboard: A transaction in which the US Federal Reserve temporarily takes in cash in exchange for securities. Balances can influence market liquidity.
Risk appetiteDashboard: Investors’ willingness to own assets with uncertain outcomes. The dashboard compares risk-seeking and defensive markets on a z-score scale.
Risk-on / risk-offDashboard: A description of whether markets favour growth-sensitive assets such as equities and crypto, or defensive assets and cash.
Risk-adjusted returnMarket: Investment performance considered alongside the amount of risk taken to achieve it.
RSIMarket: Relative Strength Index: a momentum indicator, usually scaled from 0 to 100, used to assess the speed of recent price moves.

S

S&P 500 / SPYSymbol: The S&P 500 tracks large US companies; SPY is an exchange-traded fund designed to follow that index.
Sharpe ratioMarket: A measure of return above a cash-like rate for each unit of volatility taken. Higher is generally better, all else equal.

T

Target allocationPortfolio: The intended full or maximum portfolio weight for an asset before current signals reduce exposure.
TickerMarket: The short exchange code used to identify an investment, such as BTC, SPY, XLK or HYG.
Tight / looseDashboard: Descriptions of financial conditions. Tight conditions make finance less available or more costly; loose conditions do the opposite.
TGADashboard: The US Treasury General Account: the government’s operating cash balance at the Federal Reserve. Rising balances can withdraw liquidity from markets.
TLTSymbol: An exchange-traded fund holding long-dated US Treasury bonds. It is particularly sensitive to interest-rate and inflation expectations.
TrendDashboard: The prevailing direction of prices. Dashboard trend gauges use standardised scores to describe the strength of that direction.

U

UnderweightPortfolio: Holding less of an asset than its benchmark or normal target because its prospects are judged relatively unattractive.

V

VIXSymbol: An index of expected 30-day S&P 500 volatility derived from options prices, often called the market’s fear gauge.

Y

YieldMarket: The income from an investment as a percentage of its price, such as bond interest or a share dividend.
Yield curveMarket: A line comparing government-bond yields across maturities. Its shape reflects rate expectations and views on growth and inflation.

Z

Z-scoreDashboard: The number of standard deviations a reading sits above or below its historical average. Zero is average; positive and negative values show direction.