The financial world has developed a special investment-oriented language to help describe the stock market, investments, securities for the stock market, stock market analysis, and its conditions. At times you may be confronted with a term which is totally alien or has a completely different meaning from what you thought. Misunderstanding these terms can sometimes lead to the wrong conclusion, and that can cost you money!

What you don't know can hurt you.

The actual earnings per share for the given year-ago period.

The national currency of Japan.

The yield on a given investment based on its current price. A stock that pays a Rs. 1 in dividends per quarter, or Rs.4 per year, and that trades at Rs.100, has a current yield of 4 percent. If the stock goes to Rs.133 and the dividend remains unchanged, the current yield would be 3 percent.

A graph of the bond yields available at a given moment in time, with the dividend yield rising along the vertical line and bond durations moving outward along the horizontal line. A typical yield curve is rising, or positive, because bonds of a longer duration pay more interest. The sharper the slope of this curve, the less additional duration you need for a higher yield. An inverted or negative yield curve, which goes downward because short-term rates are higher than long-term rates, is considered a sign that a recession is in the offing; high short-term rates will work their way through the economy, putting the brakes on growth. If short and long-term rates are the same, the yield curve is flat. The bonds typically plotted on a yield curve are Treasury securities.

The rate of return yielded by a debt security that is held to maturity when both interest payments and the investor's capital gain or loss on the security are taken into account.

Year to date.