Explanations of "Gold" investment-related terms A to Z

Elliott wave theory is one of the most popular theories used in technical analysis, that might be helpful in understanding the way that trends develop, and therefore in making more accurate prognoses. EWT is often applied to many markets, including gold and silver.

No longer underdeveloped country. But not a developed economy yet. Emerging market is a country which has some features of the developed markets, but does not fully satisfy all of their standards. The term is, thus, imprecise or outdated and some people prefer talking about developing countries or low income countries, middle income countries and high income countries. However, the main features of emerging markets are as follows: lower income than in advanced countries, relatively rapid economic growth, high volatility, capital markets less mature than in developed markets, higher than average returns.

E-mini is an electronically traded futures contract on the CME that indicates a ‘smaller version’ of the normal future contracts. E-mini enables market participation with a lower capital. In other words, it refers to a contract with miniature size of normal contracts.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19, we are now all epidemiologists! But what does an “epidemic” really means? Well, it is an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time. What is important, an epidemic refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected, or to diseases that have grown out of control. So, a regular, seasonal flu is normally not called an epidemic, although it may affect many people. But when the flu virus mutates and infects much more individuals than normally expected, then it becomes epidemic.

The epidemic occurs when people do not have immunity to a new pathogen (or their immunity to an established pathogen decreased significantly). The latest example is, of course, COVID-19 caused by a new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 that passed from animals (possibly bats or pangolins).

Exchange Traded Funds track the value of a particular index, commodity (for instance a gold ETF tracks the gold price) or currency and its highly liquid shares can be bought and sold just like stocks on the stock exchange. ETFs may be attractive as speculative vehicles because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features.

Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency game in town. There are plenty of them – Bitcoin is simply the most popular and largest in terms of market capitalization (as of April 30, 2019). But Ethereum ranks second – and according to its supporters, it is better than Bitcoin as it exploits the full potential of the blockchain (which is a digital, public ledger that records online transactions made in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies).

Exchange Traded Note (ETN) is a debt security (derivatives) issued by an underwriting bank, whose value depends on the movements of a stock index or some other benchmark. They were created by Barclays in 2006 and have become an alternative to ETFs. Gold ETN is an instrument designed to track the price of gold and silver ETN is an instrument designed to track the price of silver.

If Europe uses euros as currency, should then Africa  use Afros as currency?

The euro is the official currency of the Eurozone, which is a monetary union consisting of 19 of 28 member states of the European Union. The euro was introduced in 1999 as an accounting currency, but physical coins and banknotes entered into circulation in 2002. The currency is managed by the European Central Bank, based in Frankfurt. Its international code is “EUR”. 

Do you know why the Great Depression was so severe? One of the reasons is that many banks collapsed back then, which led to the financial crisis and the decline in the money supply. In other words, much of the economic damage was caused by bank runs. When many clients withdraw their deposits simultaneously from the bank, the bank has a problem, since under fractional-reserve banking system, it keeps only a small portion of customers' deposits in cash. Yes, it means that your money at bank is not really safe.

The Federal Reserve System, or sometimes referred to as “the Fed” is the central bank of the United States. The agency was created through the House Resolution 7883 by Rep. Carter Glass and it came into effect on December 23, 1913 after President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act. The Fed is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the country will have a safer, more stable, and flexible financial and monetary system.

The United States is a federation of individual states which have the Federal Government to oversee them and run the affairs of the overall federation or country. Thus the Federal Debt is the amount owed by the United States government to various creditors.

The federal funds rate is an interest rate at which depository institutions lend balances (funds maintained at the Federal Reserve) to each other overnight. When one bank has surplus balances in its reserve account, it lends to other banks in need of larger balances. In simpler terms, a bank with excess cash, which is often referred to as liquidity, will lend to another bank that needs to quickly raise liquidity.