Glossary

A practice trading or investing account that uses simulated money, letting you test a platform and strategies without risking real capital.

A direct bond is an individual bond you own outright, receiving its coupon payments and face value at maturity yourself, rather than holding bonds indirectly through a fund or ETF.

Diversification is the practice of spreading investments across different assets, sectors, and regions so that no single holding can heavily damage your overall portfolio.

A dividend is a portion of a company's profits paid out to shareholders, usually in cash and typically on a regular schedule.

Dollar-cost averaging is an investing approach where you invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of price, so you buy more units when prices are low and fewer when prices are high.

A drawdown is the decline in a portfolio's value from its most recent peak to a subsequent low, usually expressed as a percentage. It helps investors understand how much an investment has fallen before recovering.

Duration measures how sensitive a bond's price is to changes in interest rates, expressed in years.