What is an account balance?

The amount of money a user has stored in a financial repository.

Account balance with a bank account

When you check your account balance at your bank, it will show the amount of cash you have stored with the bank.

If you have pending transactions, your account balance might be greater than the amount that is actually available to you. That is because the money needed to make those transactions has not yet been removed from your account.

Account balance with a stockbroker

An account balance with a brokerage is likely to look different from a bank account balance. That’s because you don’t just keep cash with a broker.

Instead, the account balance that you see when you check your brokerage account will be the sum of any cash you hold and any stocks you have bought.

Because the value of stocks changes all the time, your account balance will also vary more frequently with stockbroker than a bank.


More terms

Maturity date

The date on which a gilt is redeemed and the gilt holder receives the repayment of the nominal amount and final dividend or coupon payment.
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Gross Margin

The difference between a company's revenue and the cost to produce its goods/services, divided by revenue.
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Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)

An investment trust specialised in investing in commercial property such as parking garages or GP offices.
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Arithmetic Mean

The sum of a set of numbers added together and then divided by the total amount of numbers in that set.
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Total Return

This is the measurement of a fund’s performance in a specific period.
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Oligopoly

A situation in which a market or industry is controlled by a small group of companies.
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NASDAQ

A US stock exchange specialising in the shares of technology companies.
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Compound interest

Understand what compound interest means and how it's calculated
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Net asset value

Mutual funds and investment trusts are priced on their net asset value (NAV).
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