Every term below links to the post that explains it — definition, formula, and a worked example on real numbers. It grows as posts publish; if a term you need isn’t here yet, it’s probably on the series roadmap.

ABCDEFGIMNOPQRSWX

51 terms so far.

A

Alpha Jargon, Decoded
Alpha is return beyond what beta and the benchmark predict. Britannia's 5.6-point lead over the Nifty is 1.6 after beta; an index fund's alpha is dividends.
Annual report Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
An annual report is 140 pages written by the people it judges. Which sections to read first, which to skip, and why the notes beat the chairman's letter.
Asset turnover Jargon, Decoded
How much revenue a company generates per rupee of assets. Asset turnover as a pure efficiency measure, and why it says nothing at all about margins.

B

Balance sheet Jargon, Decoded
A balance sheet is a photograph, not a video. What a company owns, what it owes, and why assets always equal liabilities plus equity, read line by line.
Benchmark (TRI vs PRI) Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
A benchmark decides what a return means. Price return versus total return indices, and how funds could once beat an index by doing nothing at all.
Beta Jargon, Decoded
Beta is how much a stock tends to move for a 1% move in the index. Britannia's two-year beta is 0.42, but it nearly doubled between the two years inside it.
Book value per share Jargon, Decoded
What each share is worth on the books. Desi Bites lists on the exchange, and book value per share becomes the first ratio with a share price attached to it.

C

Candlestick chart Technical Analysis — Zero to Hero
Open, high, low and close packed into a single bar. How to read candlesticks, what bodies and wicks mean, and why a line chart throws most of it away.
Capex intensity Jargon, Decoded
What share of revenue a company must plough back into plant and equipment just to keep going, and how capital-hungry business models show up in the numbers.
Cash conversion cycle Jargon, Decoded
Inventory, debtor and creditor days combined into one number: how many days cash is genuinely stuck in the business, and what a negative cycle means.
Cash flow statement Jargon, Decoded
Profit is an accounting opinion; cash is a fact. How the three sections of a cash flow statement reveal what an income statement can quietly hide.
Comparables (relative valuation) Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
Valuing a company against its peers. How multiples-based valuation works in practice, how the peer set gets chosen, and the traps that make cheap look cheap.
Creditor days (payable days) Jargon, Decoded
How long a company takes to pay its own suppliers, and why stretching payables is interest-free funding right up until the point that it isn't.
Current ratio Jargon, Decoded
Can short-term assets cover short-term bills? The current ratio, why textbook thresholds mislead, and the four numbers to read around it before trusting it.

D

DCF (discounted cash flow) and terminal value Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
Terminal value is usually most of a DCF's answer. The perpetuity growth and exit multiple methods, and the full valuation finally assembled end to end.
Debt-to-equity Jargon, Decoded
How much of a business runs on borrowed money. D/E, why this series counts only interest-bearing debt, and why high leverage is not automatically bad.
Debtor days (receivable days) Jargon, Decoded
Once a sale is made on credit, how long until the cash actually arrives? Debtor days, DSO, and why receivables are a claim on money rather than money.
Discounting (time value of money) Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
Why a rupee in five years is worth less than a rupee today. Present value, discount rates, and just how sensitive a valuation is to the rate you pick.
Dividend yield Jargon, Decoded
The cash a share pays back each year as a percentage of its price. How dividend yield is computed, and why an unusually high yield is often a falling price.
Drawdown Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
Not just how far a fund fell, but how long you waited to get back. Maximum drawdown, recovery time, and why the journey is what investors quit during.
DuPont decomposition Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
DuPont splits ROE into margin, asset turnover and leverage, turning a single score into a reason. The three-step decomposition, worked end to end.

E

EBITDA margin Jargon, Decoded
EBITDA margin isolates the core operating business before interest, tax and depreciation. What it usefully strips out, and what it conveniently hides.
EPS (earnings per share) Jargon, Decoded
Profit sliced into one share's worth. Why pre-issue and post-issue EPS diverge after a fresh issue, and what basic vs diluted EPS really mean.
Equity multiplier Jargon, Decoded
Total assets divided by equity: how far an asset base is levered above the equity backing it, once every liability is counted, not just the loans.
EV/EBITDA Jargon, Decoded
Pricing the whole business, equity and debt together and net of cash. How enterprise value is built, and why EV/EBITDA compares differently-funded firms better.
Expense ratio (direct vs regular) Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
The expense ratio is deducted from NAV daily, so you never see it charged. What the direct and regular plans of one fund actually cost you over time.

F

Free cash flow (FCF) Jargon, Decoded
After running the business and paying for capex, how much cash is genuinely left over? FCF, the formula, and why negative FCF is sometimes good news.
Free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
The half of a DCF that actually decides the answer. Building an FCFF forecast from revenue growth, margins, tax, depreciation, capex and working capital.

G

Gross margin Jargon, Decoded
Out of every rupee of sales, how much survives the direct cost of making the thing? Gross margin, COGS, and the pricing power the number quietly reveals.

I

Income statement (P&L) Jargon, Decoded
The P&L is a waterfall from revenue down to profit. Every stopping point along the way, from gross profit to EBITDA to PAT, and what each one tells you.
Interest coverage Jargon, Decoded
Whatever the debt load, can operating profit comfortably pay the interest bill? EBIT over interest, and why lenders reach for this ratio first.
Inventory days Jargon, Decoded
How many days of stock a company sits on before it sells. Inventory days, the formula, and what a steadily rising number usually signals about demand.

M

Margin of safety Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
A DCF gives a number to two decimals and supports a range. Sensitivity tables, margin of safety, and what to do with a valuation you don't fully trust.
Market cap (market capitalisation) Jargon, Decoded
Price times shares outstanding: the number behind every large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap label, and why it is not what buying the company would cost.

N

NAV (net asset value) Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
Units, NAV, AMCs, and why a ₹10 NAV is not cheaper than a ₹400 one. The mechanics of how a mutual fund works, before any performance number appears.
Net debt/EBITDA Jargon, Decoded
How many years of operating profit it would take to clear the debt. The ratio credit rating agencies watch, and what a negative reading actually means.
Net margin Jargon, Decoded
Net margin is what survives every single cost, including interest and tax. How to read it alongside gross and EBITDA margin rather than on its own.
Net working capital Jargon, Decoded
Current assets minus current liabilities: the rupee cushion between short-term resources and short-term obligations, and when a large cushion is a bad sign.

O

OCF/PAT (cash conversion of profit) Jargon, Decoded
An earnings quality check: how much reported profit turns up as real operating cash in the same year, and what a persistent gap between them tends to mean.

P

P/B (price-to-book) Jargon, Decoded
How many rupees the market pays for each rupee of accounting net worth. P/B, why it pairs naturally with ROE, and where book value stops meaning much.
P/E (price-to-earnings) Jargon, Decoded
How many years of current earnings the market is charging for. The P/E formula, why high is not automatically expensive, and the earnings quality behind the E.
PEG ratio Jargon, Decoded
PEG divides P/E by the growth rate to ask whether a multiple is justified. A useful framing built on a genuinely fragile input, and how to treat it as one.
Point-to-point returns (CAGR) Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
The same index fund returned 2.6% and 23.9% a year over five-year windows, depending only on the start month. Why a quoted return is a choice of dates.

Q

Quick ratio Jargon, Decoded
The acid test: coverage once inventory is stripped out entirely. Why the quick ratio is the stricter cousin of the current ratio, and when the gap matters.

R

ROA (return on assets) Jargon, Decoded
ROA measures the profit a company squeezes out of everything it owns. How it differs from ROE and ROCE, and why asset-light businesses score so differently.
ROCE (return on capital employed) Jargon, Decoded
ROCE measures the return a business earns on all the capital in it, equity and borrowings together, and why that is often a fairer quality test than ROE.
ROE (return on equity) Jargon, Decoded
ROE asks what shareholders' own money earned this year. The formula, why the average equity denominator matters, and how leverage can flatter the number.
Rolling returns Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
Rolling returns compute the outcome from every possible start date instead of one flattering window. How to build them, and how to read the distribution.

S

Sharpe ratio and volatility Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
Two funds return 12% very differently. Standard deviation as a measure of the ride, the Sharpe ratio, and the assumptions Sharpe quietly makes about returns.

W

WACC (weighted average cost of capital) Fundamental Analysis — Beginner to Expert
Where the discount rate comes from. Cost of equity via CAPM, cost of debt after tax, and how the two blend into the input that moves a DCF more than any other.

X

XIRR and SIP returns Mutual Funds, Minus the Marketing
Why a SIP needs XIRR rather than a simple return, what rupee cost averaging does and does not do, and a real five-year SIP that returned almost nothing.