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Investing glossary

Every term you meet on broker pages and calculators, explained once, linked everywhere.

68 terms

AMC (Annual Maintenance Charge) Investing: Yearly fee for maintaining your demat account.
AMO (After-Market Order) Stock Broking: Orders placed after hours for the next session.
Basket Order Stock Broking: Fire a set of orders as one package.
Bid-Ask Spread Stock Broking: The gap between buyer and seller quotes — your instant cost.
Brokerage Investing: The broker's fee for executing your trade.
BSDA (Basic Services Demat Account) Stock Broking: Low-cost demat for small holdings.
BTST (Buy Today, Sell Tomorrow) Stock Broking: Sell delivery shares before they reach your demat.
Call-and-Trade Stock Broking: Phone-based order placement — with a fee.
CDSL TPIN Stock Broking: The OTP-based authorisation that lets brokers debit your demat.
Circuit Limit Stock Broking: The daily price band that freezes a stock.
Compounding Mutual Funds: Growth earning growth — returns on returns.
Contract Note Stock Broking: Your broker's daily bill and legal trade record.
Credit Bureau (CIC) Credit Score: An RBI-registered company that holds credit information and scores it.
Credit Card Credit Cards: Borrow-now, pay-later line for purchases with an interest-free window.
Credit Card Annual Fee Credit Cards: Yearly charge for holding the card; waivers often apply.
Credit Card Interest (Finance Charge) Credit Cards: ~3.5%/month on revolved balances — the costliest common debt.
Credit Report Credit Score: Your borrowing record, as reported by lenders to a credit bureau.
Credit Report Dispute Credit Score: A request to correct inaccurate information on your credit report.
Credit Score (CIBIL) Credit Cards: 3-digit number (300–900) summarising your creditworthiness.
Credit Utilisation Ratio Credit Score: The share of your available credit-card limit you are using.
DDPI (POA for Demat) Stock Broking: One-time mandate so selling skips the daily OTP.
Delivery Trading Investing: Buying shares to hold overnight or longer.
Demat Account Investing: Electronic vault that holds your shares and securities.
Direct Plan Mutual Funds: Mutual-fund plan with zero distributor commission.
DP Charge Investing: Fee when shares leave your demat on a delivery sell.
EMI Conversion Credit Cards: Split a purchase into monthly instalments, usually with interest.
ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) Investing: Index basket that trades live like a stock.
Exit Load Mutual Funds: The early-redemption fee mutual funds charge.
Expense Ratio Mutual Funds: Yearly % a mutual fund charges for management.
Forex Markup Credit Cards: Extra % charged on international card spends.
Fractional Shares US Investing: Own a slice of Apple or MRF for the price of coffee.
Free Full Credit Report (FFCR) Credit Score: One free report with score per bureau, every calendar year.
Futures Contract Stock Broking: Obligation to buy/sell at a set price on a future date.
GIFT City Route (NSE IX) US Investing: Buy US stocks in dollars without LRS.
GTT (Good-Till-Triggered) Order Stock Broking: A standing order that waits days or months for your price.
Hard Enquiry (Credit Enquiry) Credit Score: A lender pulling your credit report to assess an application.
Impact Cost Stock Broking: How much your own order moves the price.
Implied Volatility (IV) Stock Broking: The market's forecast of future swings, priced into options.
Index Fund Mutual Funds: Mutual fund that mirrors an index at end-of-day NAV.
Intraday Trading Investing: Buying and selling a stock within the same day.
Limit Order Stock Broking: Buy/sell only at your price or better.
LRS (Liberalised Remittance Scheme) US Investing: RBI window letting residents invest up to $250,000/year abroad.
Margin (Leverage) Stock Broking: Broker-funded top-up that multiplies both gains and losses.
Margin Pledge Stock Broking: Use your holdings as collateral for trading limits.
Market Order Stock Broking: Buy/sell immediately at the best available price.
MTF (Margin Trading Facility) Stock Broking: Hold leveraged delivery positions overnight — for interest.
NAV vs Market Price (ETF) Mutual Funds: Why ETFs can trade away from fair value.
Nomination (Demat) Stock Broking: Who inherits your holdings without court paperwork.
Open Interest (OI) Stock Broking: Live contracts outstanding — the crowd's positioning map.
Option Greeks (Delta, Theta, Vega) Stock Broking: The dials measuring an option's sensitivities.
Options Contract Stock Broking: Pay a premium for the right (not obligation) to buy/sell.
Payin & Payout Stock Broking: Money movement between you and the broker.
Pledge Risk Stock Broking: Your collateral can be sold if you default on margin.
Reward Points & Cashback Credit Cards: Points or cash earned per rupee spent, with caps that matter.
Settlement (T+1) Stock Broking: When shares and money actually change hands — next working day.
Short Selling Stock Broking: Sell first, buy back later — profit from falls.
Short-Delivery Auction Stock Broking: What happens when your seller fails to deliver.
SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) Mutual Funds: Fixed automatic monthly investment into mutual funds.
Strike Price Stock Broking: The fixed price an option contract is anchored to.
STT (Securities Transaction Tax) Investing: Government tax on listed security transactions.
TCS on Foreign Remittance US Investing: Tax collected at source on large LRS transfers.
TCS on LRS (Rates & Refunds) US Investing: 20% collected above ₹10L/year — adjustable, not extra tax.
Total Return Index (TRI) Mutual Funds: The index benchmark that includes dividends.
Tracking Error Mutual Funds: How far an index fund/ETF strays from its index.
Trading Account Investing: The account you use to place buy/sell orders.
Upper/Lower Circuit — see Circuit Limit Stock Broking: Daily price band that freezes a stock.
US Dividend Withholding (25%) US Investing: A quarter of US dividends never reaches you.
XIRR (Extended Internal Rate of Return) Mutual Funds: Your portfolio's true annualised return with irregular flows.