Depreciation refers to the gradual and permanent decrease in value of the assets of a firm, nation or individual over its lifetime.

A consumer price index (CPI) is the relative measure of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households.

A basic material used in manufacturing or commerce that is interchangeable with other the same commodities coming from a different source. The quality of a specific commodity may differ slightly, but it is essentially uniform across producers. When they are traded on an exchange, commodities must also meet specified minimum standards, also known as a basis grade. Typical types of commodities are corn, gold, silver, steel, etc.

For a candlestick chart, the body or real body is the wide or colored part of a candle that represents the range between the opening and the closing prices over a specific time period (minute, hour, day, week or other). They are the most basic building block for candlestick charts.

A point on a candle stick chart representing a specific time period (a day, an hour, a minute, etc) in which the underlying stock price has moved. Candlesticks will have a body and usually two wicks – one on each end. For a white (could also be green) candlestick, the bottom of the body represents the opening price and the top of the body represents the closing price. For red candlesticks, it is just the other way around. The top and bottom tips of each wick are the day’s highest and lowest price respectively.

The qualitative and quantitative information that contributes to the economic well-being and the subsequent financial valuation of a company, security or currency. Analysts and investors analyze these fundamentals to develop an estimate as to whether the underlying asset is considered a worthwhile investment. For businesses, information such as revenue, earnings, assets, liabilities and growth are considered some of the fundamentals.

The fee charged by a broker or investment advisor in exchange for investment advice and/or handling the purchase or sale of a security. Commissions vary from brokerage to brokerage.

Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers where each is the sum of the two preceding numbers (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 and so forth). This sequence of numbers forms various ratios including the infamous “Golden Ratio” which is .618.

Earnings report stock trends, profit and more but making sense of an earnings report can seem daunting especially in light of the catastrophic endings of Lehman Brothers, Enron and Worldcom.

Earnings estimates provide one strong measure of potential future performance and are a mainstay of stock investing research.

The Cramer bounce is a theory that the stocks that Jim Cramer recommends on his TV show will almost always increase the day after the show airs.

A CD or Certificate of Deposit is one of the safest and liquid forms of investment available. Insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), CDs are a type of interest earning deposit account.

Diversification to reduce risk should seem obvious to most investors but a surprising number of people follow their instinct rather than intellect when it comes to investing.

The buy and hold strategy is essentially just what it sounds like: Purchase stocks and then hold them for an extended period of time. The underlying assumption for the buy and hold strategy is that stocks tend to go up in price over extended periods of time.

The U.S. Dollar has lost more than 30 percent of its value relative to other world currencies. Shorting the U.S. dollar and buying other world currencies is one way to make money from this trend.

A national government that owes money to international financial institutions such as the World Bank, foreign governments, or to foreign lenders.

A technical analysis indicator that compares advancing and declining stock issues and trading volume as an indicator of overall market sentiment. The Arms Index, or TRIN (Traders Index), is used as a predictor of future price movements in the market primarily on an intraday basis.

A market indicator used to determine volatility levels in the market without factoring in price direction. It is calculated by taking the absolute value of the difference between the number of advancing issues and the number of declining issues. Typically, large numbers suggest volatility is increasing, which is likely to cause significant changes in stock prices in the coming weeks.

A technical analysis tool that represents the total difference between the number of advancing and declining security prices. This index is considered one of the best indicators of market movements as a whole. Stock indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average only tell us the strength of 30 stocks, whereas the advance/decline index can provide much more insight into the movements of the market.