Investing glossary & guides

An estimate of what a business is genuinely worth, based on the cash it can generate over time — independent of its current share price. If the price sits below intrinsic value, the stock may be undervalued.

A sensible order for beginners: build a base of low-cost ETFs first, then add carefully valued individual stocks on top once you can judge what a company is worth.

The return-on-investment formula, the total-vs-annualised trap, and why a high past return still doesn't tell you whether a stock is good value today.

How cryptocurrency investing works — and the honest case against it from a value view: with no earnings or cash flow, there's nothing to analyse.

A valuation method that estimates intrinsic value by forecasting a company’s future free cash flows and converting them into today’s money. Because cash in the future is worth less than cash now, each year is “discounted” by a rate that reflects risk.

The blended rate of return a company must pay its lenders and shareholders, weighted by how much it uses of each. In a DCF it is the discount rate — a higher WACC (a riskier business) produces a lower intrinsic value.

Oak Growth’s 0–99 score for how cheap or expensive a stock is versus its sector, blending P/E, P/FCF, P/Book and EV/EBITDA against the sector median. A higher score means cheaper relative to peers.

The gap between a stock’s price and its intrinsic value, shown as a percentage. The wider the discount, the more room you have to be wrong about the future and still invest soundly — the core idea of value investing.

The share price divided by earnings per share — roughly how many years of current profit you are paying for the business. A high P/E implies the market expects strong growth; a low one implies caution, or value.

Share price divided by net assets per share. Below 1.0 means the market values the company at less than it owns — worth investigating, and rarely an accident.

A durable advantage — brand, scale, network effects, switching costs or patents — that protects a company’s profits from competitors for years. Wide-moat businesses sustain high returns far longer.

The four tests a company must pass to appear in Oak Growth’s screener: Moat, Value, Financials and Management. Only companies that clear all four make the cut.

The S&P 500 version of the Buffett screen: the same philosophy, but recalibrated thresholds. Large US companies typically carry higher valuations and different balance-sheet norms than UK or European peers, so identical cut-offs everywhere would unfairly screen them out.

Net profit divided by shareholders’ equity — how efficiently a company turns its owners’ money into profit. Consistently high ROE, without leaning on excessive debt, is a hallmark of a quality business.

After-tax operating profit over all capital employed, cash excluded. Unlike ROE it cannot be flattered by borrowing, which makes it the cleanest single measure of business quality.

Total debt divided by shareholders’ equity — how much a company leans on borrowed money. Lower is generally safer, though the healthy level varies a lot by sector.

The cash left after a company has paid its running costs and reinvested in itself. It is the money genuinely available for dividends, buybacks and paying down debt — and it is much harder to manipulate than reported profit.

A company’s profit divided by its shares outstanding. Steadily growing EPS over time is the engine of long-term share-price growth.

The cash paid to shareholders for each share held. A sustainable, growing dividend is often a sign that reported earnings are backed by real cash.

An intangible asset recorded when a company pays more than book value to acquire another. Large or rising goodwill can flatter the balance sheet and sometimes signals overpaying — worth watching, as it can later be written down.

A snapshot of what a company owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and what is left for shareholders (equity) at a point in time. The two sides always balance: assets = liabilities + equity.

The profit-and-loss account: revenue at the top, costs subtracted line by line down to net profit at the bottom. It shows whether the business made or lost money over a period.

Tracks the actual cash moving in and out across operations, investing and financing. Often the most honest of the three statements, because cash is far harder to massage than accounting profit.

A company’s most comprehensive report, covering the full financial year — audited, detailed, and usually published two to four months after the year-end. The key event for assessing a business.

A mid-year update covering the first six months. Less detailed and often unaudited, but important for tracking whether a company is on course.

The official wire for announcements from UK-listed companies, run by the London Stock Exchange — where market-moving news such as results, deals and guidance is released. Oak Growth surfaces only the announcements that actually matter.

A momentum indicator from 0 to 100. Readings above about 70 suggest a stock may be overbought; below about 30, oversold — a gauge of whether a recent move has run too far.

The average closing price over the last 20, 50 or 200 days, which smooths out daily noise to reveal the underlying trend. When a shorter average crosses a longer one it signals a shift in momentum — the basis of the golden cross and death cross.

The number of shares traded in a period. High volume confirms conviction behind a price move; a move on thin volume is far less reliable.

Gold tends to rise when uncertainty, inflation or dollar weakness increase, because investors treat it as a store of value. It often moves opposite to confidence in the wider economy.

Oil prices drive energy-company profits and feed into transport and manufacturing costs across every sector, making them a barometer of global economic activity.

A basket of investments — often an entire index — that trades like a single share, giving instant diversification at low cost.

Like an ETF, but it tracks the price of a physical commodity such as gold, silver or oil — letting you get exposure without owning the physical asset.

Vanguard is among the world’s lowest-cost ETF providers and is owned by its own funds, and therefore its investors, rather than outside shareholders — so its incentives align with keeping costs low for ordinary investors.

Ten-year winners are semiconductors; 2026’s winner is a freight futures fund. The two lists share no names.

Six funds, wildly different. One is nearly a third NVIDIA; another’s decade-long chart belongs to a Taiwan fund.

Which to actually hold rather than which performed best — and why a second fund usually buys the same twenty companies twice.

Gold and silver ETCs compared on fee and structure — SGLN, SGLD, RMAU, PHAU, SSLN, PHSP.

A technology can be transformative and its stocks overvalued at once. A value investor’s take on the AI boom.

Some are, some aren’t — how to judge an AI stock’s price, the capex trap, and what the cash flow reveals.

A repeatable method for spotting good businesses trading below their worth — quality first, then price.

A cheap stock that keeps falling because the business is declining — and the four checks that spot one.

What each measures, why ROCE includes debt and ROE doesn't, and what the gap between them tells you.

Buffett's preferred measure of real cash profit — the formula, and the tricky part everyone gets wrong.

Two ways to value a stock — one forecasts the future, one anchors to today. When to trust each.

Balance sheet, income statement and cash flow explained — what each shows, how they connect, and which metrics come from each. With cheat sheet.

Find UK shares trading below intrinsic value — and tell a genuine bargain from a value trap.

How to spot the FTSE 100 companies the market has temporarily mispriced.

The rare overlap: a strong British business at a low price, and how to find it.

A repeatable method: judge the business first, then the price. The checks that separate quality from a value trap.

Index funds, stocks, bonds and property compared over decades — and why compounding beats timing.

What real diversification means, how many stocks you actually need, and why too many can cost you.

Find US stocks trading below their intrinsic value — the metrics that signal genuine value versus a value trap.

How to spot the rare S&P 500 stocks the market has temporarily mispriced.

The rare overlap: a strong US business at a low price. How to find it and avoid value traps.

The value investor's answer isn't a hot tip — it's finding quality below its worth.

Index funds, ETFs and buy-and-hold explained — and where active value fits alongside.

Cash, bonds and funds by risk — and why a margin of safety protects stock investors.

UK mid-caps get less coverage and more mispricing — and need harder checks on debt and cash conversion.

The TSE price-to-book reform, why Berkshire bought the trading houses, and the governance and currency checks that matter.

Order book, cash conversion and capped margins — and why a sector everyone agrees on is the hardest place to find a discount.

Why a rate rise cuts share values before anything changes at the company, and why long-duration growth falls hardest.

The peak-earnings trap: why a cyclical looks cheapest exactly when it is most expensive.

Break-even crude price, reserve replacement and dividend cover — the numbers that matter more than the P/E.

Gold produces no cash, so it cannot be valued. Miners can — and analysing them honestly is what puts most value investors off.

Four reasons markets fall — and why only one of them changes what a business is actually worth.

Oil, mining, sterling and rates. Why the index isn't a barometer of the UK economy, and sometimes rises on bad UK news.

Where diversification stops helping, and why the research burden decides the number rather than a rule of thumb.

What the published research actually reports, and why the arithmetic works against frequency.

Real rates, the dollar, a fading crisis premium and ETF outflows — and why miners fall harder than the metal.

The CUDA moat and 65% growth against customer concentration, custom silicon and peak-cycle earnings.

Spending arrived now, revenue arrived later — then Azure passed $100bn and the shares rallied 25% in three days.

What's genuinely elevated, which warning signs are noise, and the five things that protect you either way.

Growing 92.8% and beating for a ninth straight quarter — at a multiple that assumes years of perfection.

One public quarter of results, a lock-up expiry and a third of the float held short. Why valuation is unusually hard here.

Supply, not demand — and that distinction matters more than the size of the fall.

Revenue grew 28% and beat. Free cash flow fell from $8.5bn to $784m. That gap is the whole story.

Five megacaps, one week, opposite reactions. The dividing line wasn't how much they spent.

A fifth of the world's oil passes through one waterway — and why a crisis premium doesn't raise what a producer is worth.

The first $200bn quarter, AWS up 37% — and the $53.4bn revaluation that made the headline profit meaningless.

Compounding at 29% a year for a decade, up 42% in twelve months — and why a record quarter still knocked it.

The S&P 500 returned less than nothing from 2000 to 2009 — yet a monthly investor finished ahead. Same index, same money.

The 2026/27 allowance, the cash ISA change coming in April 2027, and the rules people trip over.

Why fees matter far more than returns on small balances, and what to do before investing it.

An interactive calculator, plus the three things every compound interest calculator quietly hides.

What a share actually is, where shares come from, and why the company gets none of your money.

Why growth is back-loaded, and why the third decade earns four times what the first one did.

A 5p share is not cheap. Unpicking that one misunderstanding explains most of what goes wrong.

The 20% definitions, and why the emotional signal points the wrong way in both directions.

Brokers, ISA vs general account, order types, and the five costs — two of which never appear on your contract note.

Stockopedia, SharePad, Simply Wall St, free tools and Oak Growth compared on coverage, fair value, technicals and price.

What Simply Wall St does well, why people look elsewhere, and where the two tools actually differ.

Stockopedia wins on almost every feature count. The differences that matter are a valuation in pounds and filtered same-day RNS.

Brokers, free data apps and paid research tools — three different products, and the usual mistake is buying the wrong category.

A review from a competitor — what it does better than anything else, and what £295 a year really costs as a drag on your portfolio.

Stock Rover covers US and Canada. If you hold anything listed in London, that is the whole comparison.

Analyst fair values only exist where an analyst has been. Oak Growth values every company, for a third of the price.

SharePad hands you the ingredients. Oak Growth hands you the meal — a value in pounds and the gap to today’s price.

£36 a month, Windows-only, no fair value. Against £18, any browser, and a number on every company.

$549 a year, annual billing only, US-centred. Against £18 a month and eight markets.

Thousands of contributors and five opinions on one company — or one method and a number.

Nine compared on price, coverage and whether they publish a fair value at all.

Fees, dealing charges, wrappers and FX — and why this decision matters less than people think.