Business Words

Yesterday I read the business section of the WSJ. I came across several terms I was vaguely familiar with but did not know exactly what they were. So I searched the exact definition in the internet. The terms I did not fully understand were government bonds, dow jones industrials, natural gas and asset based lending. Government Bonds: "A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of bond issued by a government to support public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called coupon payments, and to repay the face value on the maturity date. For example, a bondholder invests $20,000, called face value or principal, into a 10-year government bond with a 10% annual coupon; the government would pay the bondholder 10% interest ($2000 in this case) each year and repay the $20,000 original face value at the date of maturity (i.e. after 10 years)." Dow Jones Industrials: "The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (/ˈdaʊ/), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indexes. Many professionals[who?] consider it to be an inadequate representation of the overall U.S. stock market compared to a broader market index such as the S&P 500. The DJIA includes only 30 large companies. It is price-weighted, unlike other common indexes such as the Nasdaq Composite or S&P 500, which use market capitalisation." Natural Gas: Natural gas is a fossil fuel, a hydro carbon, methane and is used for heating and cooling. Asset based lending is when money is lent to a company based on the assets they own and not based on cash flows in business transactions. So even if income is low some companies get loans based on their assets. Assets work as a collateral. "With Asset based lending, a broad range of your company’s assets— ranging from accounts receivable to real estate and even brand names and intellectual property—can serve as collateral, unlocking needed capital." It is wise for everyone to know a little bit about every subject. A subject may not be our field and not be something we studied in college and not be something we have careers in but it is still important to know something about it. We don't have to be experts in that but just have basic literacy in that. I hope you have a lovely day! . .