Fortune 500

A term used to refer to a list of the 500 largest companies in the United States as compiled by Fortune magazine each year.  The companies are ranked according to their annual revenues and fiscal years.  Since 1955, to be included in the Fortune 500 is taken as a mark...

Fibonacci Retracement

Technical trading method based off the Fibonacci numbers in ratio form.  A Fibonacci retracement is created by taking two extreme points on a price chart (generally a peak and a trough) and dividing the vertical distance by the Fibonacci ratios of 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%,...

Fibonacci Extension

Fibonacci sequences are common patterns in nature that some traders believe to also be significant in financial markets.  The common Fibonacci sequence is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on.  In trading, the sequence is commonly understood to be 61.8%, 100%,...

Exponential Growth

A pattern of data that represents greater and greater increases as time moves forward, mimicking the shape of an exponential function.  In the world of finance, exponential growth is associated with compound interest.  So an account with a compounding interest rate...

Elliott Waves

A form of technical analysis used to analyze market cycles and predict future market trends developed by accountant Ralph Nelson Elliott in the 1930s.  The basis is the assumption that investor psychology can be predicted through using crowd psychology.  Though the...

ECB

The European Central Bank (or ECB) is the central bank for the eurozone.  Similar to the Federal Reserve of the Bank of England, the ECB sets monetary policy for many countries in Europe.  The fact that it serves several countries (ie, every country who uses the Euro)...