A straddle is an investment strategy that involves the purchase or sale of an option allowing the investor to profit regardless of the direction of movement of the underlying asset, usually a stock. Read this article for details on the two straddle strategies: a long straddle and a short straddle.

Strike Price is the price at which an option can be exercised to buy or sell the underlying stock  or futures contract.

A short call option position where the writer does not own the specified number of shares specified by the option nor has deposited cash equal to the exercise value of the call.

“Unemployment” is a major economic indicator measuring how much of the working population is currently looking for a job. Just because someone is jobless doesn’t mean they are unemployed – they need to be looking for work!

Unsystematic Risk is the risk that is unique to a company such as a strike, the outcome of unfavorable litigation, or a catastrophe that affects its production.

Variance

Variance is how far away from the average numbers are. The higher the variance, the farther away most numbers are from the group’s average.

Volume

Volume is the quantity of shares/contracts of a security that is traded within a specific time period.

In finance, Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) is a ratio of the profit traded to complete volume traded over a distinct time horizon – normally one day. It’s a portion of the average price a stock traded at over the trading horizon.

“Wall Street” is a street in New York City, near the southern end of Manhattan Island. It is the home of the New York Stock Exchange, and the biggest center of stock trading and finance in the world.

“Wealth” means having an abundance of something desirable. This can be tangible, like money and property, or intangible.

Yield

Yield is the return investors can expect on a security based on all the outflows and inflows they incur related to that security.

Yield To Maturity is the interest rate that will make the present value of a bond’s remaining cash flows (if held to maturity) equal to the price (plus accrued interest, if any).

A zero coupon bond is a bond sold without interest-paying coupons. Instead of paying periodic interest, the bond is sold at a discount and pays its entire face amount upon maturity, which is usually a one year period or longer.