ShouldEye Financial Intelligence

Markets & Investing Intelligence Glossary

Explore investing, markets, financial statements, economic indicators, broker protections and the signals that can reveal risk before you commit money.

ShouldEye explains financial concepts and risk signals. It does not provide individualized investment, tax or legal advice.

Educational information only. ShouldEye does not provide legal, banking, or individualized financial advice. Dispute rights, deadlines, and outcomes depend on your payment method, card network, issuer, processor, jurisdiction, and the facts of your case. Legal Disclaimers

730 published markets and investing definitions in this index

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Investing and Markets

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is a snapshot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific date, showing what it owns and owes.

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Investing and Markets

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is a non-standardized estimate of cash generated after operating needs and capital expenditures, used to gauge discretionary cash.

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Investing and Markets

Price-to-Earnings Ratio

The price-to-earnings ratio compares a company’s share price to its earnings per share, expressing how much the market pays per unit of earnings.

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Investing and Markets

Forex

Forex (foreign exchange) is the market for trading currencies against one another.

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Cryptocurrency Basics

Market Capitalization

Market Capitalization is an estimate of network or token value from price times circulating supply, not a safety score.

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Investing and Markets

Exchange-Traded Fund

An exchange-traded fund is an investment fund that issues shares trading on an exchange throughout the day, typically tracking an index or strategy.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

SIPC Protection

SIPC protection refers to the limited restoration of missing customer cash and securities in a SIPC-member broker liquidation, not insurance against investment losses.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Fiduciary Duty

Fiduciary duty is an obligation to act in a client’s best interest with care and loyalty, applied to many investment advisers under U.S. law.

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Investing and Markets

Payment for Order Flow

Payment for order flow is compensation a broker receives for routing customer orders to a particular market maker or venue.

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Investing and Markets

Non-GAAP Earnings

Non-GAAP earnings are company-defined profit measures that adjust GAAP results by adding back or excluding selected items.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Pump-and-Dump Scheme

A pump-and-dump scheme inflates a security’s price through hype, then promoters sell into the rise, leaving later buyers with losses.

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Scams and FraudFinancial scam

Investment Scam

An investment scam promises unrealistic returns to lure victims into sending money for fake or manipulated investments.

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Banking Codes and Identifiers

ABA Routing Number

An ABA routing number is a nine-digit U.S. bank identifier used to route ACH, wires, and check clearing to the correct institution.

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Cryptocurrency Basics

Account Balance Model

Account Balance Model is a ledger design that tracks balances per account rather than individual unspent outputs.

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Crypto Scams

Account Breach Alert Scam

Account Breach Alert Scam is alerts claiming your wallet is breached and must be “secured” via a drainer link.

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Payment Fraud

Account Data Compromise

Account data compromise (ADC) is an incident where payment account data is exposed or stolen from a merchant, processor, or other entity.

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Crypto Exchanges and Trading

Account Freeze

Account Freeze is a platform restriction that blocks withdrawals or trading pending review.

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Crypto Scams

Account Manager Crypto Scam

Account Manager Crypto Scam is assigned “managers” who coach victims through fraudulent platforms.

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Banking Codes and Identifiers

Account Number

An account number is the local identifier a bank assigns to a deposit or payment account within its own books.

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Payment Fraud

Account Takeover Fraud

Account takeover (ATO) fraud occurs when an attacker gains control of a customer’s merchant or wallet account and abuses stored payments.

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Crypto Scams

Address Book Poison

Address Book Poison is tricking users into saving attacker addresses under trusted labels.

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Crypto Scams

Address Poisoning

Address poisoning is a scam that dusts your wallet with lookalike addresses so you might copy the wrong recipient from history.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Administrative Enforcement

Administrative enforcement is regulator-led action such as investigations, orders, and fines rather than private lawsuits.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Administrative Fine

An administrative fine is a monetary penalty imposed by a public authority under administrative powers.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Adopted Regulation

An adopted regulation is a regulation formally approved by the competent authority but not necessarily fully applicable yet.

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Crypto Scams

Advance Fee Crypto Scam

Advance Fee Crypto Scam is demanding more crypto to unlock withdrawals, taxes, or “compliance releases”.

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Crypto Compliance and Regulation

Advice Regulation Crypto

Advice Regulation Crypto is when recommendations about crypto-assets become regulated advice.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Affinity Fraud

Affinity fraud targets members of a shared community—religious, ethnic, professional, or social—using trust inside the group.

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Consumer Protection

Aggressive Marketing

Aggressive marketing uses undue pressure, harassment, or coercion that undermines free consumer choice.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

AI Trading Scam

An AI trading scam markets automated “AI bots” or algorithms that supposedly generate guaranteed trading profits.

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Crypto Scams

Airdrop Connect Drain

Airdrop Connect Drain is “claim” buttons that only request a wallet connect then a drain signature.

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Crypto Scams

Airdrop Scam

An airdrop scam uses fake free-token or free-NFT claims to lure wallet connects, approvals, or seed entry.

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Payment Fraud

Allowlist

An allowlist (whitelist) explicitly trusts certain customers, BINs, devices, or IPs to bypass stricter checks.

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Consumer Rights and Protections

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) resolves disputes outside traditional court litigation.

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Investing and Markets

Alternative Trading System

An alternative trading system is a non-exchange trading venue that matches buyers and sellers of securities under ATS rules.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Amendment

An amendment is a formal change that adds to, deletes, or revises parts of an existing legal instrument.

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Investing and Markets

American Depositary Receipt

An American depositary receipt is a U.S.-traded certificate representing shares of a non-U.S. company held by a depositary bank.

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Trust and Reputation

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias is overweighting the first number or claim you see—such as a fake “trust score” or discounted price.

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Cryptocurrency Basics

Anonymity Claim

Anonymity Claim is a statement that activity cannot be linked to a person; many so-called anonymous flows are still analyzable.

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Crypto Scams

Anti-Bot Code Abuse

Anti-Bot Code Abuse is “anti-bot” functions used selectively to block ordinary sellers.

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Crypto Compliance and Regulation

Anti-Money Laundering Crypto

Anti-Money Laundering Crypto is controls aimed at detecting and preventing money laundering through virtual assets.

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Crypto Scams

Anti-Money Laundering Fee Scam

Anti-Money Laundering Fee Scam is demanding AML clearance payments in crypto to unlock withdrawals.

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Crypto Scams

API Key Leak Drain

API Key Leak Drain is stolen exchange API keys used to trade or withdraw assets.

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Crypto Exchanges and Trading

API Trading Key

API Trading Key is credentials allowing software to trade on your behalf — treat like passwords.

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Crypto Scams

App Store Wallet Clone

App Store Wallet Clone is lookalike wallet apps published to steal funds after import.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Application Date

An application date is when specific provisions of a law or regulation become operable in practice.

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Payment Fraud

Application Fraud

Application fraud is deception during account, credit, or merchant onboarding to obtain access or funds.

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Crypto Scams

Approval Phishing

Approval phishing tricks users into granting token or NFT spender permissions that later drain assets.

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Investing and Markets

Asset Allocation

Asset allocation is the intentional mix of asset classes (such as stocks, bonds, and cash) in a portfolio according to goals, horizon, and risk tolerance.

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Cryptocurrency Basics

Asset Issuance

Asset Issuance is creation of new coins or tokens under protocol or contract rules.

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Crypto Scams

Audit Badge Spoof

Audit Badge Spoof is displaying fake audit logos on scam token sites.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Audit Requirement

An audit requirement is a duty to conduct or submit to independent or internal examinations of compliance.

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Crypto Scams

Authority Bias Crypto Scam

Authority Bias Crypto Scam is using uniforms, badges, or official-looking portals to coerce crypto payments.

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Financial Regulations

Authorized Payment

An authorized payment is a payment the payer has consented to under applicable payment-services rules.

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Consumer Rights and Protections

Automatic Renewal Law

An automatic renewal law regulates how subscriptions renew and what disclosures and cancellation paths are required.

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Trust and Reputation

Availability Heuristic

The availability heuristic judges risk by how easily examples come to mind, not by base rates.

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Investing and Markets

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is a snapshot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific date, showing what it owns and owes.

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Banking Codes and Identifiers

Bank Code

A bank code is a short national or scheme identifier that names a financial institution for routing or reporting—not a full account number.

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Banking Codes and Identifiers

Bank Identification Number

A Bank Identification Number (BIN) is the industry name for the leading card digits that identify the issuer or card program—standardized as an IIN.

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Banking Codes and Identifiers

Bank Identifier

A bank identifier is any code or structured value used to recognize a financial institution in a payment or messaging system.

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Crypto Exchanges and Trading

Base Currency

Base Currency is the asset being bought or sold in a trading pair.

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Crypto Compliance and Regulation

Beneficial Ownership Crypto

Beneficial Ownership Crypto is identifying natural persons who ultimately own or control crypto accounts or companies.

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Crypto Compliance and Regulation

Beneficiary Information

Beneficiary Information is recipient identity data accompanying Travel Rule messages.

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Investing and Markets

Best Execution

Best execution is a broker’s duty to seek the most favorable terms reasonably available for a customer order under applicable rules.

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Crypto Scams

BGP or Hosting Hijack Risk

BGP or Hosting Hijack Risk is infrastructure attacks that serve malicious wallet frontends.

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Crypto Scams

Bid Spam NFT

Bid Spam NFT is spam bids used to lure sellers into phishing accept flows.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Bill

A bill is a proposed statute introduced in a legislature for debate and possible enactment.

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Financial Regulations

Billing Error Notice

A billing error notice is a consumer’s formal notice to a creditor about a billing error on an open-end credit account.

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Regulatory Status and Legal Language

Binding Regulation

A binding regulation is a rule with legal force that creates enforceable duties or rights.

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Cryptocurrency Basics

Bitcoin Network

Bitcoin Network is the Bitcoin blockchain and peer network as an educational example of a proof-of-work cryptocurrency system.

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Crypto Scams

Blacklist Removal Scam

Blacklist Removal Scam is charging to remove a nonexistent on-chain blacklist.

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Crypto Scams

Blacklist Trap Token

Blacklist Trap Token is tokens that blacklist buyers after purchase to prevent selling.

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Showing 60 of 730

Financial statement warning signs

Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Affinity Fraud

Affinity fraud targets members of a shared community—religious, ethnic, professional, or social—using trust inside the group.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Boiler Room

A boiler room is a high-pressure sales operation that cold-calls or messages people to push speculative or fraudulent investments.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Churning

Churning is excessive trading in a customer account primarily to generate commissions rather than to meet the customer’s objectives.

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Crypto Transactions

Front-Running

Front-Running is inserting a transaction ahead of another based on seeing it pending, often for profit.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Guaranteed Return Claim

A guaranteed return claim promises fixed or high profits with little or no risk—often a hallmark of investment fraud.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Insider Trading

Insider trading generally means trading securities based on material nonpublic information in breach of a duty, or tipping others who trade.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Investment Fraud

Investment fraud is deceptive solicitation or operation of an investment opportunity that misleads investors about risks, returns, or use of funds.

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Scams and FraudFinancial scam

Investment Scam

An investment scam promises unrealistic returns to lure victims into sending money for fake or manipulated investments.

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Most misunderstood financial terms

Investing and Markets

Payment for Order Flow

Payment for order flow is compensation a broker receives for routing customer orders to a particular market maker or venue.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

SIPC Protection

SIPC protection refers to the limited restoration of missing customer cash and securities in a SIPC-member broker liquidation, not insurance against investment losses.

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Investing and Markets

Contract for Difference

A contract for difference is a derivative that pays the difference in an asset’s price between open and close without transferring the underlying.

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Investing and Markets

Penny Stock

A penny stock is a low-priced, often thinly traded equity that may trade OTC and carries elevated fraud and volatility risk.

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Investing and Markets

Net Asset Value

Net asset value is the per-share value of a fund’s assets minus liabilities, used to price mutual fund shares and as a reference for ETFs.

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Crypto Exchanges and Trading

Margin Call

Margin Call is a demand or automatic process requiring more collateral to keep a leveraged position open.

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Crypto Scams

Copy Trading Scam

Copy Trading Scam is fake master traders that simply abscond with allocated funds.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Guaranteed Return Claim

A guaranteed return claim promises fixed or high profits with little or no risk—often a hallmark of investment fraud.

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Investor protection concepts

Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

SIPC Protection

SIPC protection refers to the limited restoration of missing customer cash and securities in a SIPC-member broker liquidation, not insurance against investment losses.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Fiduciary Duty

Fiduciary duty is an obligation to act in a client’s best interest with care and loyalty, applied to many investment advisers under U.S. law.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Regulation Best Interest

Regulation Best Interest is a U.S. SEC rule requiring broker-dealers to act in retail customers’ best interest when making securities recommendations.

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Investing and Markets

Broker-Dealer

A broker-dealer is a firm that brokers securities transactions for customers, deals for its own account, or both, typically under registration and conduct rules.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

Investment Adviser

An investment adviser is a person or firm that provides advice about securities for compensation, often subject to registration and fiduciary standards.

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Market Manipulation and Investor Protection

BrokerCheck

BrokerCheck is FINRA’s free public tool for researching the backgrounds of brokers, brokerage firms, and some investment adviser representatives.

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Investing and Markets

Best Execution

Best execution is a broker’s duty to seek the most favorable terms reasonably available for a customer order under applicable rules.

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Market and economic indicators

Investing and Markets

Yield Curve

A yield curve plots interest rates (yields) across maturities for similar-credit debt, most often government securities.

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How financial numbers may be manipulated

Trust and Reputation

Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias is overweighting the first number or claim you see—such as a fake “trust score” or discounted price.

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Trust and Reputation

Availability Heuristic

The availability heuristic judges risk by how easily examples come to mind, not by base rates.

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Trust and Reputation

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is favoring evidence that supports what you already believe while discounting contradictory signals.

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Recently reviewed terms

Where to verify

Prefer primary filings, regulator registers, central-bank releases and official statistics. Jurisdiction rules differ.

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Educational information only. ShouldEye does not provide legal, banking, or individualized financial advice. Dispute rights, deadlines, and outcomes depend on your payment method, card network, issuer, processor, jurisdiction, and the facts of your case. Legal Disclaimers