Investing Glossary

Accounts Receivable tracks money owed to a company by customers for delivered goods or services, serving as a key indicator of revenue quality and short-term liquidity.

Active management is an investment approach where portfolio managers make deliberate security selection and timing decisions to outperform a market index, directly impacting fund fees, risk profiles, and long-term compounding.

An activist investor is a shareholder that acquires a significant stake in a public company to push for strategic, operational, or governance changes aimed at increasing shareholder value.

A non-GAAP profitability metric that removes standard accounting charges and irregular expenses to isolate a company's core operating cash generation potential.

Alpha measures the excess return an investment generates above its expected return, helping investors evaluate whether active decisions or security selection add value after adjusting for risk.

Alternative data refers to non-traditional information sources that investors analyze to gain an informational edge before official financial reports are released.

An Alternative Trading System is a private, SEC-regulated trading venue that matches buy and sell orders outside traditional exchanges, offering investors insights into market liquidity, execution quality, and hidden trading costs.

Asset allocation is the strategic distribution of investment capital across different asset classes to align portfolio risk and return with an investor's financial goals and time horizon.

A financial ratio measuring how efficiently a company converts its asset base into sales revenue.