Finance Glossary

FierceFinance covers capital markets activity involving a variety of debt and equity securities instruments. Our capital markets articles also encompass financial derivates, futures trading, commodities trading, the currency market (foreign exchange trading), and the fixed income market. FierceFinance delivers the most important market information to help the financial professional make informed, timely decisions.

Big institutional investors – especially mutual funds and hedge funds – are as important as ever. They have the power to move individual securities and entire financial markets. Financial services industry professionals need to stay abreast of the current issues. FierceFinance provides useful summaries of numerous hedge fund news and mutual fund articles.

With the recent $1.4 billion settlement by Wall Street firms, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to crack down on common violations such as “insider trading, misrepresentation or omission of important information about securities, manipulating the market prices of securities, stealing customers’ funds or securities, violating broker-dealers' responsibility to treat customers fairly, and sale of securities without proper registration.” (SEC)

Venture capital (VC) is money invested in a privately held, high-growth company in order to advance that company’s product(s). Also referred to “seed money,” the financing can be used for anything from growth of an established product or service to aiding companies with a promising product still in development. The earlier a firm chooses to invest in a company, the more capital will be necessary. Investments vary anywhere from $1 to $10 million, though in some cases it can be substantially more.