The following outline provides an overview and topical guide to finance:

Finance – the field concerned with how individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and manage monetary resources over time, while accounting for the risks associated with their activities and investments.

Overview

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The term finance may incorporate any of the following:

Fundamental financial concepts

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  • Finance – Academic discipline studying businesses and investments
    • Arbitrage – Capitalisation of risk-free opportunities in financial markets
    • Capital (economics) – Already-produced durable goods that are used in production of goods or services
    • Capital asset pricing model – Finance model linking expected return to systematic risk
    • Cash flow – Movement of money into or out of a business, project, or financial product
    • Cash flow matching – Strategy aligning asset cash inflows with liability outflows
    • Debt – Obligation to pay borrowed money
    • Financial ethics – Application of ethical principles to the area of business activities
    • Asset types
      • Real estate – Land, including its buildings and resources
      • Securities – Tradable financial asset
      • Commodities – Fungible item produced to satisfy wants or needs
      • Futures – Standardised contract to buy or sell an asset at a future date
      • Cash – Physical currency and other immediately accessible liquid assets
    • Discounted cash flow – Method of valuing a project, company, or asset
    • Financial capital – Economic resources used to buy what is needed to make products or provide services
      • Funding – Act of providing resources
    • Entrepreneur – Person who owns and operates a business
    • Fixed income analysis – Process of valuing debt securities by assessing their risk and return
    • Gap financing – Short-term loan covering the gap between available funds and total financing needs
    • Global financial system – Global framework for capital flows
    • Hedge – Investment position used to offset potential losses in another asset
      • Basis risk – Risk that a hedge and its underlying asset do not move perfectly together
    • Interest rate – Percentage of a sum of money charged for its use
    • Short-rate model – Interest-rate model describing the stochastic evolution of the instantaneous short rate
    • Interest – Sum paid for the use of money
    • Investment – Set of actions with the intent of earning profit
    • Leverage – Use of borrowed funds in the purchase of an asset
    • Long (finance) – Position in a financial instrument in which the holder owns a positive amount
    • Liquidity
    • Margin (finance) – Type of financial collateral used to cover credit risk
    • Mark to market – Accounting method valuing assets and liabilities at current market prices
    • Market impact – Concept in economics
    • Medium of exchange – Method by which value is transferred between parties
    • Microcredit – Small loans to impoverished borrowers
    • Money – Object or record accepted as payment
      • Money creation – Process by which the money supply of an economic region is increased
      • Currency – Standardization of money
      • Coin – Small, flat and usually round piece of material used as money
      • Banknote – Paper money issued by a bank
      • Counterfeit – Making a copy or imitation which is represented as the original
      • History of money
      • Monetary reform – Movements to amend the financial system
    • Portfolio – Financial term for a collection of investments
    • Reference rate – Benchmark interest rate used to price loans and financial contracts
    • Return – Finance term; profit on an investment
    • Risk – Possibility of something bad happening
    • Scenario analysis – Futures studies / Futures techniques method
    • Short (finance) – Selling unowned financial securities
    • Speculation – Engaging in risky financial transactions
      • Day trading – Buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day
    • Position trader – Standardised contract to buy or sell an asset at a future date
    • Spread trade – Type of financial purchase on securities
    • Standard of deferred payment – Debt valuation in economics
    • Store of value – Property that money is useful later
    • Time horizon, also known as planning horizon – Planned duration over which an investment or decision is expected to be held
    • Time value of money – Better to receive money now than later
      • Discounting – When a creditor delays payments from a debtor in exchange for a fee
      • Present value (PV), also known as Present Discounted Value (PDV) – Current worth of a future sum discounted to today
      • Future value – Value of an asset at a specific date
      • Net present value – Valuation in finance
      • Internal rate of return – Method of calculating an investment's rate of return
      • Modified internal rate of return – Measure of an investment's attractiveness
      • Annuity – Series of payments made at equal intervals
      • Perpetuity – Annuity with payments made at equal intervals indefinitely
    • Trade – Exchange of goods and services
      • Free trade – Absence of government restriction on international trade
      • Free market – Form of market-based economy
      • Fair trade – Sustainable and equitable trade
    • Unit of account – Standard numerical measure used to value and compare goods and services
    • Volatility – Degree of variation of a trading price series over time
    • Yield – Income return on an investment expressed as a percentage of its value
    • Yield curve – Relationships among bond yields of different maturities
    • Equated monthly installment – Loan repayment variant
    • Down payment – Upfront partial payment for the purchase of something expensive
  • Financial Technology

History

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Finance terms by field

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Accounting (financial record keeping)

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  • Auditing – Independent examination of an organization
  • Accounting software – Computer program that maintains account books
  • Book keeping – Recording financial transactions or events
  • FASB – Private US organization for accounting
  • Financial accountancy – Field of accounting
  • Management accounting – Field of business administration, part of the internal accounting system of a company
  • Philosophy of Accounting – Conceptual framework
  • Hedge accounting – Accounting method aligning hedging gains and losses with the hedged item
    • IFRS 9 – Accounting standard
    • Fair value accounting – Accounting method valuing assets and liabilities at current market prices

Banking

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Corporate finance

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Investment management

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Personal finance

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Public finance

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  • Central bank – Government body that manages currency and monetary policy
  • Federal Reserve – Central banking system of the US
  • Fractional-reserve banking – Banking system where institutions hold only a fraction of deposits as reserves
    • Deposit creation multiplier – Process by which the money supply of an economic region is increased
  • Tax – Compulsory contribution to state revenue
    • Capital gains tax – Tax on investment profits
    • Estate tax – Tax paid after inheritance of property
    • inheritance tax – Tax paid after inheritance of property
    • Gift tax – Tax on money or property that one living person gives to another
    • Income tax – Tax based on taxable income
    • Inheritance tax – Tax paid after inheritance of property
    • Payroll tax – Tax imposed on employers or employees
    • Property tax – Tax on property, particularly real estate
    • land value tax – Levy on the unimproved value of land
    • Sales tax – Tax on the sales of certain goods and services
    • value added tax – Form of consumption tax
    • excise tax – Goods tax levied at the moment of manufacture rather than sale
    • use tax – Type of tax in the United States
    • Transfer tax – Tax on the transfer of property or assets between parties
    • stamp duty – Tax levied on property purchases or documents
    • Tax advantage – Financial incentive
    • Tax, tariff and trade – Compulsory contribution to state revenue
    • Tax amortization benefit – Savings resulting from amortization
  • Crowding out – Reduction in private investment caused by increased government borrowing
  • Industrial policy – Government strategy promoting industrial development
  • Agricultural policy – Laws relating to domestic agriculture and foreign-imported agricultural products
  • Currency union – Agreement involving states sharing a single currency
  • Monetary reform – Movements to amend the financial system

Risk management

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Constraint finance

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  • Environmental finance – Field of finance focused on environmental policy
  • Feminist economics – Gender-aware branch of economics
  • Green economics – Economy based on ecological economics
  • Islamic economics – Handling of economics based on Islamic jurisprudence
  • Uneconomic growth – Economic growth that reflects or creates a decline in the quality of life
  • Value of Earth – Economical estimate of the net worth of the planet
  • Value of life – Economic measure placing a monetary value on reducing the risk of death

Insurance

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Economics and finance

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Corporate finance theory

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Asset pricing theory

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Asset pricing models

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Mathematics and finance

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Time value of money

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Financial mathematics

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Mathematical tools

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Derivatives pricing

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Portfolio mathematics

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Financial markets

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Market and instruments

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Equity market

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Equity valuation

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Investment theory

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Bond market

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Money market

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Commodity market

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Derivatives market

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Forward markets and contracts

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Futures markets and contracts

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Option markets and contracts

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Swap markets and contracts

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Derivative markets by underlyings

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Equity derivatives
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Interest rate derivatives
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Credit derivatives
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Foreign exchange derivative
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Financial regulation

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Designations and accreditation

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Litigation

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Fraud

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Industry bodies

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Regulatory and supervisory bodies

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International

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European Union

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Regulatory bodies by country

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United States legislation

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Actuarial topics

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Valuation

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Underlying theory

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Context

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Considerations

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Discounted cash flow valuation

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Relative valuation

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Contingent claim valuation

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Other approaches

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Financial modeling

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Portfolio theory

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General concepts

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Modern portfolio theory

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Post-modern portfolio theory

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Performance measurement

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Mathematical techniques

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Quantitative investing

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Financial software tools

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Financial modeling applications

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Corporate Finance

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Quantitative finance

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Financial institutions

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Financial institutions

Education

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See also

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References

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  1. Joel G. Siegel; Jae K. Shim; Stephen Hartman (1 November 1997). Schaum's quick guide to business formulas: 201 decision-making tools for business, finance, and accounting students. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-058031-2. Retrieved 12 November 2011. §39 "Corporate Planning Models". See also, §294 "Simulation Model".
  2. See for example: Low, R.K.Y.; Faff, R.; Aas, K. (2016). "Enhancing mean–variance portfolio selection by modeling distributional asymmetries" (PDF). Journal of Economics and Business. 85: 49–72. doi:10.1016/j.jeconbus.2016.01.003.; Low, R.K.Y.; Alcock, J.; Faff, R.; Brailsford, T. (2013). "Canonical vine copulas in the context of modern portfolio management: Are they worth it?" (PDF). Journal of Banking & Finance. 37 (8): 3085–3099. doi:10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.02.036. S2CID 154138333.
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