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

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Bonds and stocks.
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Bed & ISA

Understand what Bed and ISA is and how it works
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Bull market

We explain what a 'bull market' means
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Value Investing

The art of buying shares which trade below their value, according to the analysis of the value investor.
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Zero-Sum Game

A situation in which one person's gain is another's loss.
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Yield

Income from an investment as a percentage of its current price.
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Technical Analysis

Examining price movements of shares and other assets, and trying to predict how they will move in the future.
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Free Trade

The other free trade. International trade in which countries allow goods to flow across their borders without imposing import or export taxes.
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Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

A means of calculating the potential future return on an investment.
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