Any debt issued by a government or corporation that may be traded. Examples of debt securities include bonds, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, and debentures. The original buyer of the debt security effectively lends the issuer money in exchange for the security, which gives the holder the right to receive interest payments and, at maturity, the principal.

The DIC's main function is to manage a fund which provides insurance protection to depositors against the potential loss of their deposits should a member financial institution fail. The deposit insurance coverage limit is a maximum of TTD$125,000 per depositor in each capacity and right in each member institution licensed under the Financial Institutions Act 2008.

A negotiable certificate that represents a company's publicly traded debt or equity. Depositary receipts facilitate trading of foreign securities.

The voluntary or required release of information relevant to a security, company, fund, or anything else. In order to be listed on an exchange, a company must provide disclosure on itself by registering with the SEC and abiding by regulations that govern what information about itself that the company releases. Disclosure exists to prevent price manipulation and anything else that would disrupt the efficiency of trade.

A company's or a mutual fund's payment of stock, cash and other pay-outs to its shareholders.

A risk management strategy that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. Diversification strives to smooth out unsystematic risk events in a portfolio, so the positive performance of some investments neutralizes the negative performance of others. The benefits of diversification hold only if the securities in the portfolio are not perfectly correlated—that is, they respond differently, often in opposing ways, to market influences.

• Dividing investment funds among a variety of securities with different risk, reward, and correlation statistics so as to minimize unsystematic risk.

A distribution of a portion of a company's earnings, decided by the board of directors, to a class of its shareholders.

A strategy that allows an investor to buy the same dollar amount of an investment on regular intervals. The purchases occur regardless of the asset's price.

• Dollar cost averaging means adding a fixed amount of money on a regular schedule to an investment account, such as a mutual fund, retirement account, or a dividend reinvestment plan.