Stocks
What is a stock?
A share makes you a part-owner of a business. Here is what that ownership includes, what it does not, and why prices move both ways.
Token Atlas — investing explained for beginners
Funds & ETFs
What is an ETF?
An exchange-traded fund holds a basket of investments like a mutual fund but trades like a stock. Here is how shares come into existence, how you buy them, and the small costs that come with trading.
Markets & Economy
What is a stock market index?
"The market" in the news is usually an index. Here is what an index measures, and why the way it is weighted changes what it tells you.
Top explainers
Funds & ETFs
Index funds explained
Portfolio Building
What is asset allocation?
Personal Finance
Compound interest explained
Investor Protection
Common investment scams and red flags
New to investing? Read in this order
The full reading path- Your first steps as a new investor
Personal Finance · 6 min
- What is a stock?
Stocks · 5 min
- What is a mutual fund?
Funds & ETFs · 7 min
- What is diversification in investing?
Portfolio Building · 5 min
- How to check a broker or financial adviser
Investor Protection · 7 min
Stocks
Shares, dividends, valuation and how companies report results.
Stocks
How does the stock market work?
Most of the time you are not buying from the company at all. You are buying from another investor, through a broker, at a price set by the bid and the ask.
Stocks
Common vs preferred stock
Both are shares of ownership, but they make a different deal with you. Common stock offers votes and open-ended upside; preferred stock offers a place ahead in the dividend line.
Stocks
How do dividends work?
A dividend is part of a company's profit paid out to shareholders. Whether you get it depends on one date, and what it is worth depends on the price you paid.
Stocks
What is the P/E ratio?
The P/E ratio tells you how many dollars investors are paying for each dollar of a company's yearly profit. It is a starting point for comparison, not a verdict.
Funds & ETFs
Mutual funds, ETFs, index funds and what they cost.
Funds & ETFs
What is a mutual fund?
One purchase can give you a slice of hundreds of stocks or bonds. Here is how a mutual fund is priced once a day, why the same fund comes in different share classes, and what a load is.
Funds & ETFs
ETF vs mutual fund: what is the difference?
They can hold the very same investments. The differences are in how you buy them, when the price is set, which fees apply and how often they pass taxable gains to you.
Funds & ETFs
Expense ratios and fund fees explained
A fund's fees are quoted in fractions of a percent, so they look tiny. Over decades they compound like returns do — just in the wrong direction. Here is every fee to look for and what it can cost.
Funds & ETFs
How to read a fund prospectus
The prospectus is the fund's official disclosure document. It looks long, but the summary section at the front follows the same order for every fund — once you know the order, you can read one in minutes.
Bonds & Cash
How lending to governments and companies works, and what moves bond prices.
Bonds & Cash
What is a bond?
Buying a bond means lending money on written terms. Here are the five words that describe every bond, a worked example of the cash it pays, and what can go wrong.
Bonds & Cash
Why do bond prices fall when interest rates rise?
An old bond's coupon is fixed. When new bonds pay more, the old one has to get cheaper to compete. Here is the mechanism, the math and the one number — duration — that sizes the effect.
Bonds & Cash
Treasury bills, notes and bonds: what is the difference?
All three are loans to the US government. The difference is how long you lend for and how you are paid. Here are TreasuryDirect's own terms, checked on 2026-10-03.
Bonds & Cash
Bond yields explained: coupon rate, current yield and yield to maturity
One bond can show three different percentages. They answer three different questions. Here is what each one measures and how to calculate it.
Markets & Economy
Indexes, interest rates, inflation and how trading actually happens.
Markets & Economy
How do interest rates affect stocks?
Rate decisions move markets because they change what future money is worth today. Here is the chain from the Fed's meeting room to a share price — without any forecast.
Markets & Economy
What is inflation and how is it measured?
Inflation quietly changes what your money can buy. Here is how the official US measure is built, how to read it, and why investors care about "real" returns.
Markets & Economy
Bull and bear markets explained
Two animal labels for the market's long swings. Here is what they mean, how the numbers work, and why the labels are only clear in hindsight.
Markets & Economy
Market volatility explained
Prices swing every day. Here is how to measure those swings, what happens when they get extreme, and why a calm plan matters more than a forecast.
Major indexes at a glance
| Index | Provider | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 | S&P Dow Jones Indices | Float-adjusted market capitalization |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | S&P Dow Jones Indices | Price-weighted |
| Nasdaq Composite | Nasdaq | Market capitalization |
| Russell 2000 | FTSE Russell | Float-adjusted |
| MSCI World Index | MSCI | Free float-adjusted market capitalization |
| FTSE 100 | FTSE Russell | Market capitalisation adjusted for free float and foreign ownership limits |
Methodology facts from each provider's documents, with sources on every profile. No live prices.
Retirement
US retirement accounts, the rules behind them and how plans are built.
Retirement
How does a 401(k) work?
A 401(k) is a US workplace retirement plan. Here is how money gets in, how an employer match adds to it, when that match becomes yours, and the dollar limits the IRS set for tax year 2026.
Retirement
What are required minimum distributions (RMDs)?
Tax-deferred US retirement accounts cannot grow untaxed forever. From age 73, under the current IRS rules, owners must withdraw a minimum each year — here is how the amount is worked out and what happens if you miss it.
Retirement
What is a target-date fund?
Target-date funds bundle stocks, bonds and other funds into one holding that grows more conservative as a chosen year approaches. They are convenient, but glide paths differ widely between funds, and no fund guarantees an outcome.
Retirement
How do people estimate how much to save for retirement?
There is no single right number. Most estimates chain together three rough steps: a share of pre-retirement income to replace, what Social Security might cover, and a withdrawal rate to turn the gap into a savings figure. Each step rests on assumptions you should see.
Portfolio Building
Allocation, diversification, rebalancing and the risks you take on.
Portfolio Building
What is diversification in investing?
Spreading your money lowers the damage any single company or category can do. It does not stop the whole market from falling. Here is the difference, with numbers.
Portfolio Building
How does portfolio rebalancing work?
Markets quietly change your mix of stocks and bonds. Rebalancing is how you put it back. Here is what drift looks like in numbers and the ways people correct it.
Portfolio Building
What is dollar-cost averaging?
Investing the same amount every month buys more shares when prices are low and fewer when they are high. It can ease timing worries, but it does not prevent losses.
Portfolio Building
What are risk tolerance and time horizon?
Two questions sit under every investing plan: how long until you need the money, and how much of a drop you can live with. Here is how to think about both.
Personal Finance
The groundwork before investing: compounding, cash buffers, debt and taxes.
Personal Finance
Why an emergency fund comes before investing
Investments can fall just when you need cash. A separate pot of safe, easy-to-reach money keeps a car repair or a lost paycheck from turning into debt or a forced sale.
Personal Finance
Pay off debt or invest?
Every extra dollar can shrink a debt or go into an investment. The comparison is simpler than it looks once you see one side is certain and the other is not.
Personal Finance
Your first steps as a new investor
Most of the work happens before the first purchase. These are the checks U.S. regulators suggest, in order, with simple numbers to make each one concrete.
Personal Finance
Capital gains tax basics (US)
When you sell an investment for more than you paid, the profit may be taxed. How long you held it changes the rate. Here are the US federal basics, using the IRS's figures for tax year 2025.
Investor Protection
Checking who you deal with, spotting scams and knowing what is insured.
Investor Protection
How to check a broker or financial adviser
Two free government-linked databases show whether someone is registered and what is on their record. Checking takes a few minutes and is the first defence against investment fraud.
Investor Protection
What SIPC protection does and doesn't cover
SIPC steps in when a US brokerage firm fails and customer assets are missing. It is not insurance against falling prices, and it works differently from FDIC deposit insurance.
Investor Protection
Margin accounts explained
Borrowing to invest magnifies both gains and losses. Here is how the US margin rules work, what triggers a margin call, and how you can lose more than you put in.
Investor Protection
What is a fiduciary?
Investment advisers and brokers both have to act in your best interest in the US, but the duties are built differently. Knowing which one you are dealing with tells you what to ask.
Calculators that show their math
Every calculator explains its formula and works through an example by hand.
Compound interest calculator
Enter a starting amount, a monthly contribution, a yearly return and a number of years. The calculator shows how much of the final balance is your own money and how much is growth.
Fund fee impact calculator
Two funds, the same investment, the same return before fees. The only difference is the yearly expense ratio — this calculator shows how far apart the ending values can drift.
Dividend yield calculator
Enter the share price, the size of each dividend payment and how often it is paid. Add your share count to see what that dividend would mean in dollars per year.
P/E ratio calculator
Two numbers in, two numbers out: the price-to-earnings ratio and the earnings yield. Here is what each one measures and where the ratio stops being useful.
Bond yield calculator
A bond's coupon rate is fixed, but its price is not. This calculator shows what that price does to the two yields people quote most: current yield and yield to maturity.
Retirement savings calculator
Enter your age, the age you plan to retire, what you have saved and what you add each month. The calculator shows a balance at retirement, then shrinks it back into today's dollars so the number means something.
Investing glossary, A to Z
Short definitions with a worked example for every term.
Why you can check everything here
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