What is Imperfect Competition? Imperfect competition is an economic concept used to describe marketplace conditions that render a market less than perfectly competitive, creating market inefficiencies that result in losses of economic value. In the real world, markets are nearly always in a condition of imperfect competition to some extent. However, the term is typically…
What is an Implicit Cost? An implicit cost is a non-monetary opportunity cost that is the result of a business – rather than incurring a direct, monetary expense – utilizing an asset or resource that it already owns. The cost is a non-monetary one because there is no actual payment by the business for the…
What is Impact Investing? Impact investing is a strategy that seeks to create a specific positive impact or outcome. What sets it apart from pure philanthropy (like cash donations) is that impact investing includes an expectation of financial returns that are (at least) comparable to market returns. Categories of intended impact include (but are not…
What Does Illiquid Mean? Illiquid is a term commonly used to describe assets or investments that cannot be quickly and easily converted into cash at the current fair market price. An individual, a company, or other entity may also be described as illiquid if they are cash poor and primarily hold only illiquid assets. Note…
What is Ideation? Ideation essentially refers to the whole creative process of coming up with and communicating new ideas. Ideation is innovative thinking, typically aimed at solving a problem or providing a more efficient means of doing or accomplishing something. It encompasses thinking up new ideas, developing existing ideas, and figuring out means or methods…
What is Human Capital? The term and theory of “Human Capital” gained popularity in the 1960s through studies by Gary Becker and Theodore Schultz, who considered the economic valuation of intangible human resource capabilities from which the business can benefit. According to Becker, capital investment intangible assets was no different from investment in human resources,…
What is ICON Cryptocurrency (ICX)? The ICON Cryptocurrency (ICX) is a cryptocurrency network that was launched in 2017 by a company based in South Korea. ICX is the associated cryptocurrency token or coin. ICON is actually a complete blockchain network, with the primary purpose of facilitating the connection and interaction of various blockchain software programs…
What is an Iceberg Order? An iceberg order is an order to buy or sell a large quantity of a financial security that, rather than being entered as a single, large order, is broken up into several smaller orders. The term “iceberg” is used to describe this method of buying or selling securities because each…
How to Become a Quant? A quant refers to a person specializing in the implementation of statistical and mathematical methods in order to understand and forecast the financial markets’ behavior. They are meant to reflect a given business condition in the form of numerical factors. Quants need to possess quantitative skills in several fields, such…
What is a High-Low Index? A high-low index is an index that tracks the new 52-week highs and new 52-week lows between stocks in a prevailing index. It is used in technical analysis, analysis of charts, and past stock data as an indicator to determine the direction of the market or index – whether the…
