Finance 101the vault · field guide

Finance 101 — A Beginner's One-Pager

The essential vocabulary and chart-reading basics to get started, with each term tagged to the dashboard where you'll actually use it. Read top-to-bottom once, then keep it open as a reference.

Tags: CORE must-know CHART reading price charts EARNINGS tab FUNDAMENTALS NEWS / sentiment OPTIONS (advanced)

1 · Market basics — start here

Stock / Share CORE

A unit of ownership in a company. Own one share of Nvidia = you own a tiny slice of Nvidia.

Ticker CORE

The short symbol that identifies a stock (NVDA = Nvidia, MU = Micron). What you type to look one up.

Exchange CORE

The marketplace where shares trade — e.g. Nasdaq, NYSE.

Market cap CORE FUNDAMENTALS

Total value of the company = share price × number of shares. Tells you if it's "large-cap" (huge, stable) or "small-cap" (small, riskier).

Volume CHART

How many shares traded in a period. High volume = lots of interest / conviction behind a move.

Liquidity CORE

How easily you can buy/sell without moving the price. Big stocks are very liquid; tiny ones aren't.

Dividend FUNDAMENTALS

A cash payment some companies make to shareholders from profits. Many growth/tech names pay none.

Index CORE

A basket tracking a market: S&P 500 (500 big U.S. firms), Nasdaq-100 (tech-heavy). The "market" people refer to.

ETF CORE

A fund you buy like a stock that holds many companies at once (e.g. SOXX = ~30 chip stocks). Instant diversification.

2 · Direction & sentiment

Bull / Bullish CORE

Expecting prices to rise. A "bull market" is a sustained uptrend. To "be bullish on NVDA" = you think it'll go up.

Bear / Bearish CORE

Expecting prices to fall. A "bear market" is a sustained decline (often defined as −20% from highs).

Rally NEWS

A sharp upward move over a short period.

Correction CORE

A drop of ~10% from a recent high. Normal and frequent — not a crash.

Volatility CORE

How much a price swings. High volatility = bigger, faster moves up and down (think the quantum stocks).

Beta FUNDAMENTALS

How much a stock moves vs. the market. Beta >1 = swings more than the market; <1 = calmer.

3 · Placing trades (order types)

Bid / Ask CORE

Bid = highest price a buyer will pay; Ask = lowest a seller will accept. The gap is the spread.

Market order CORE

Buy/sell immediately at the current best price. Fast, but you don't control the exact price.

Limit order CORE

Buy/sell only at a price you set or better. You control price, but it may not fill.

Stop-loss CORE

An automatic sell trigger if the price falls to a set level — caps your downside.

Short selling ADVANCED

Betting a stock will fall by borrowing and selling it, hoping to rebuy lower. Risky — losses are unlimited.

4 · Earnings & results → Earnings tab

Earnings EARNINGS

A company's profit. Reported every quarter (4×/year) in an earnings report.

EPS (earnings per share) EARNINGS

Profit divided by number of shares. The headline number Wall Street watches each quarter.

Revenue EARNINGS

Total sales (the "top line"), before costs. Profit is what's left after expenses (the "bottom line").

Estimate vs. Actual EARNINGS

Analysts predict EPS/revenue; the company then reports the real figure. The dashboard shows both.

Beat / Miss EARNINGS

Reporting above estimates = a "beat"; below = a "miss." Drives big post-earnings moves.

Guidance EARNINGS

The company's own forecast for next quarter. Often matters more than the result itself.

5 · Valuation & fundamentals → Fundamentals view

P/E ratio FUNDAMENTALS

Price ÷ earnings per share. Roughly: how many years of profit you're paying for. High P/E = market expects fast growth (or it's expensive).

P/S ratio FUNDAMENTALS

Price ÷ sales. Used for fast-growing firms that aren't profitable yet (many quantum names).

Margin FUNDAMENTALS

What % of sales becomes profit. Higher margins = a stronger, more efficient business.

Dividend yield FUNDAMENTALS

Annual dividend ÷ price, as a %. Income you earn just for holding.

Valuation FUNDAMENTALS

Is the price "cheap" or "expensive" vs. the company's fundamentals? P/E and P/S are the starting tools.

6 · Reading price charts → the core skill

Candlestick anatomy CHART

Each "candle" shows one time period (a day, hour, etc.) with four prices. Green = closed higher than it opened (up); red = closed lower (down). The thick body spans open→close; the thin wicks show the high and low.

Read a chart of candles left→right to see the trend; the colors and wick lengths show how the battle between buyers and sellers played out.

Line vs. candlestick chart CHART

Line = just closing prices, clean for trends. Candlestick = richer (open/high/low/close per period). Start with line, graduate to candles.

Timeframe CHART

The window you view (1D, 1M, 1Y, 5Y). Zoom out to judge the real trend; a scary 1-day drop can be a blip on the 1-year.

Moving average (MA) CHART

The average price over N days, drawn as a smooth line. The 50-day and 200-day MAs are the most-watched trend gauges.

Golden / Death cross CHART

50-day MA crossing above the 200-day = bullish ("golden"); crossing below = bearish ("death").

Support & resistance CHART

Support = a price floor where buyers keep stepping in; resistance = a ceiling where sellers keep appearing. Breaking through either is significant.

52-week high / low CHART

The highest and lowest price over the past year — quick context for where a stock sits now.

RSI CHART

A 0–100 momentum gauge. Above ~70 = "overbought" (may be due for a pullback); below ~30 = "oversold." A hint, not a rule.

Gap CHART

When a stock opens well above/below its prior close — common after earnings or big news.

7 · Options ADVANCED — separate dashboard

Skip these until you're comfortable with stocks. Options are contracts, not ownership, and can lose 100% fast. Listed here only so the words ("call," "put") aren't a mystery. They'd live on a dedicated Options dashboard, not the core tracker.

Call option OPTIONS

The right to buy a stock at a set price by a set date. You buy calls if you're bullish (expect it to rise).

Put option OPTIONS

The right to sell a stock at a set price by a set date. You buy puts if you're bearish (expect a fall) or to protect holdings.

Strike price OPTIONS

The fixed price at which the option lets you buy (call) or sell (put).

Expiration OPTIONS

The date the contract expires. After it, the option is worthless if unused.

Premium OPTIONS

The price you pay to buy the option contract itself.

In / Out of the money OPTIONS

"In the money" = the option would be profitable to exercise now; "out of the money" = it wouldn't.

8 · Risk & building a portfolio

Diversification CORE

Don't put everything in one stock or theme. Spreading bets reduces the damage if any one fails.

Asset allocation CORE

How you split money across types of investments (stocks, ETFs, cash). The biggest driver of long-run results.

Position sizing CORE

How much to put in a single name. Speculative bets (e.g. quantum) should be small.

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) CORE

Investing a fixed amount on a schedule regardless of price — smooths out timing risk. Great for beginners.

Drawdown CORE

The drop from a peak to a trough — how much you'd be "down" at the worst point. Know your tolerance for it.

Risk tolerance CORE

How much volatility/loss you can stomach without panic-selling. Be honest with yourself before buying.

9 · Which term lives on which dashboard

Dashboard / view	Terms you'll use there
Company cards (All / Semis / Quantum tabs)	Ticker, market cap, sector, ETF, bull/bear thesis, volatility, diversification, position sizing
📅 Earnings tab	Earnings, EPS, revenue, estimate vs. actual, beat/miss, guidance, earnings date
📰 News tab	Rally, correction, sentiment, catalysts, headlines
Price chart view (needs live-price upgrade)	Candlestick, line chart, timeframe, volume, moving averages, support/resistance, 52-week high/low, RSI, gap
Fundamentals view (future)	P/E, P/S, margin, dividend yield, beta, valuation
Options dashboard (advanced, separate)	Call, put, strike, expiration, premium, in/out of the money, short selling

Educational reference only — not investment advice. Definitions are simplified for beginners. As a first habit: pick one company, watch it through one earnings report, and notice how the chart, the news, and the numbers move together before you risk any money.