Price-to-Earnings. How many naira investors pay for ₦1 of yearly profit. Lower can mean cheap or distressed; higher can mean expensive or growing. Compare to peers and to the stock's own 5-year median.

Annual dividend ÷ current share price. A 6% yield means the stock pays you 6% of its price in dividends per year. Note: in Nigeria, the company already deducts 10% WHT — what you receive is net of tax.

Share price × total shares outstanding. The whole company's price tag. Nigerian large caps are >₦500B; mid-caps are ₦50-500B.

Earnings per share. Net profit divided by shares outstanding. Grows when earnings grow OR when the company buys back shares.

Return on Equity — net profit ÷ shareholder equity. Tells you how efficient management is at turning your stake into profit. Nigerian banks typically run 15-25%.

What the company would be worth if it sold all assets and paid all debts today. Banks trading below book are interesting; manufacturers below book are usually broken.

Price-to-Book — share price divided by book value per share. Below 1× means the market values the company at less than its accounting net worth. Below 1× is common (and often justified) for Nigerian banks.

P/E divided by expected earnings growth rate. PEG below 1 suggests the stock is cheap relative to its growth; above 2 suggests expensive. Sanity-check the growth assumption — Nigerian forecasts often optimistic.

Cash left after a business pays operating expenses and capital spending. FCF pays dividends, buybacks, and reduces debt. Earnings can be massaged; FCF is harder to fake.

Operating profit ÷ revenue. Shows how much of every ₦100 of sales the company keeps after running the business (before interest and tax). Nigerian banks: 40-55%. Cement makers: 25-35%.

Net profit ÷ revenue. The final cut after every expense, interest, and tax. Stable net margin > 15% across cycles signals genuine pricing power.

(Revenue − cost of goods sold) ÷ revenue. The first profit cut, before SG&A and tax. High gross margin (>50%) signals brand power or scale; low (<20%) signals a commodity business.

Total debt ÷ shareholder equity. Above 1× means the company owes more than its owners' stake; below 0.5× is conservative. Nigerian manufacturers running >2× during 2024 FX crisis got crushed.

Current assets ÷ current liabilities. Above 1× means the company can pay this year's bills from this year's cash and inventory. Below 1× is a liquidity red flag.

Like the current ratio but excludes inventory (because inventory can be hard to sell quickly). Above 1× is healthy; below 0.5× signals the company may struggle to pay short-term debts.

Operating profit ÷ interest expense. Tells you how many times over the company can pay its interest bill from earnings. Below 2× is dangerous; above 5× is comfortable.

Dividends paid ÷ net profit. Tells you how much of profits the company returns vs reinvests. Sustained >100% means dividends are being funded from debt or reserves — eventually breaks.

EPS ÷ dividend per share. The reciprocal of the payout ratio. Above 2× means earnings cover the dividend twice — safe. Below 1.2× means a single bad quarter could force a cut.

Current annual dividend ÷ your original purchase price. If you bought at ₦20 and the company now pays ₦4/year, your yield on cost is 20% — locked in for as long as you hold.

The first trading day a buyer does NOT receive the next dividend. To collect it you must own the share before this date. Stock typically drops by ~the dividend amount on ex-date.

Cut-off date the company looks at its share register to decide who gets the dividend. Falls 1-2 days after the ex-date due to T+2/T+3 settlement.

Period when the NGX register is closed for share transfers ahead of a dividend or AGM. Common in Nigeria; trades during book closure settle after it reopens.

Company repurchases its own shares from the market, reducing the share count. Boosts EPS mechanically. Rare in Nigeria due to regulatory hurdles; common globally.

Cosmetic increase in share count with a proportional drop in price. A 2-for-1 split turns 100 shares at ₦50 into 200 shares at ₦25. Your value, ownership, and dividends per holding unchanged.

Existing shareholders are offered new shares at a discount, in proportion to their holding. Dilutes you if you don't subscribe. Common Nigerian banks use it to raise capital.

Free shares issued to existing shareholders out of retained earnings. Increases your share count without you paying anything; share price adjusts down proportionally.

The ~3-4 week window each quarter when listed companies publish financial results. NGX requires quarterly filings within 30 days of period end. Big mover days for stocks.

Management's forward-looking commentary on revenue, profit, or margins. Nigerian disclosures lean conservative-to-silent compared to US peers. Beats vs misses move the stock.

Shares actually available for public trading — total shares minus insider, government, and locked-up holdings. Small float = thin liquidity and choppy price action.

Percentage of shares held by management, founders, and directors. >15% is healthy alignment; >50% can signal weak public-shareholder voice. Tracked in annual reports.

NGX divides listings into Premium (top 3 by liquidity and governance), Main, ASeM, and Growth boards. Premium board has stricter disclosure rules and is where most blue-chips sit.

Time between trade execution and the cash/shares actually changing hands. NGX uses T+3 (three working days). US stocks use T+1.

How quickly you can sell without moving the price. NGX large caps trade ₦500M+/day = liquid. Penny stocks trading ₦5M/day = illiquid; expect to lose 5-10% to spread.

True annualised return on a Nigerian Treasury bill. Buy at a discount (e.g. ₦950K for ₦1M face value), receive face at maturity. 364-day T-bills yielded 18-22% across 2025.

How CBN quotes T-bill returns. Discount rate × tenor gives you the gap between purchase price and face value — NOT your true annualised yield. Yield is always higher than discount rate.

How long the T-bill runs. CBN auctions 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day tenors fortnightly. Longer tenor usually = higher yield; you trade liquidity for return.

CBN's Monetary Policy Rate. The risk-free policy rate that anchors T-bill yields. When MPR rises, T-bill rates rise. Currently 27.50%.

CBN-issued bill used for Open Market Operations to mop up liquidity. Sold mostly to banks and offshore investors at auctions separate from NTB. Yields can be higher than NTB for the same tenor.

Rate banks pay each other for overnight collateralised borrowing. Tracks MPR closely. Repo spikes signal a liquidity squeeze in the banking system.

Federal Government of Nigeria local-currency bond. Tenors run 2-30 years, pay semi-annual coupons. Issued via DMO auctions. Coupon income is tax-exempt under CITA.

Nigerian government USD-denominated bond. Pays USD coupons, redeems in USD. Yields trade well above US Treasury yields to compensate for sovereign risk.

Fixed periodic interest payment on a bond, quoted as % of face value. A 16% coupon on a ₦1M FGN bond pays ₦80K every 6 months. Independent of current market price.

Yield to Maturity — the total annualised return if you hold the bond to maturity, accounting for coupon AND price gap to face value. The true comparable yield across bonds.

Approximate % price change for a 1% move in yields. A duration of 5 means the bond drops ~5% if yields rise 1pp. Longer bonds = higher duration = more rate sensitivity.

Nominal yield minus inflation. A 20% T-bill in 30% inflation gives -10% real yield — you're losing purchasing power. Critical metric in Nigeria's high-inflation regime.

Year-on-year change in the consumer price basket, published monthly by NBS. Drives CBN's MPR decision. Nigerian headline inflation has averaged 20-30% across 2023-2025.

Plot of yields against tenor. Normal curve: longer tenors yield more. Flat: market sees rates falling. Inverted: rare in Nigeria, signals recession in DM economies.

Money Market Fund — a pooled vehicle that buys short-dated T-bills, OMOs, and bank placements. Daily-priced, no lock-up, yields ~MPR minus 1-2%. Distributions are taxed (10% WHT).

Earning interest on previously earned interest. A 20% annual return doubles your money in ~3.5 years if you reinvest. Time is the multiplier you can't shortcut.

Risk that the issuing government defaults or restructures debt. FGN Eurobonds carry it; FGN naira bonds technically don't (CBN can always print naira) but face inflation risk instead.

Time-Weighted Return — return that ignores the size and timing of your deposits/withdrawals. The fair comparison to a benchmark, because it isolates investment skill from cashflow timing.

Money-Weighted Return (a.k.a. IRR) — return that DOES account for the size and timing of your contributions. The honest measure of "how did MY actual money do".

Compound Annual Growth Rate — the constant annual return that would have produced the actual end value. Smooths the noisy year-on-year sequence into one number.

Capital gain + dividends + interest, all rolled into one number. Always quote total return, not price return, when comparing equities to fixed income or to an index.

How much you beat your benchmark by. +3% alpha means you returned 3 percentage points more than NGX-ASI over the same period. Hard to keep positive year after year — most professionals can't.

How much your portfolio moves with the market. β = 1 means it moves in lockstep with the index. β > 1 = amplifies the market; β < 1 = dampens. T-bills have β ≈ 0.

Return per unit of risk. Sharpe = (return − risk-free rate) ÷ volatility. >1 is good, >2 is exceptional. NGN risk-free is ~20%, so most NGX strategies score low; foreign sleeve scores higher.

Like Sharpe, but uses downside-only volatility in the denominator. Penalises losses without penalising upside moves. >2 is exceptional. Often a fairer measure than Sharpe.

Excess return per unit of market risk (beta). (Return − risk-free) ÷ beta. Useful when your portfolio is just one piece of a wider allocation; otherwise Sharpe is the better default.

Alpha ÷ tracking error. Tells you how reliably you beat the benchmark. >0.5 over multiple years is solid skill; >1.0 is rare.

Standard deviation of your portfolio's return MINUS the benchmark's return. Low tracking error = closet indexer; high tracking error = genuinely different bets vs benchmark.

How different your weights are from the benchmark's, as a percentage. Below 50% = closet indexer; above 80% = highly active. Higher active share = more upside AND more risk vs the benchmark.

How wildly your NAV swings. Measured as the standard deviation of daily returns, annualised. Lower vol = smoother ride; higher vol = more nausea.

The statistical measure of dispersion around the mean. In finance, applied to returns to quantify volatility. ~68% of returns fall within ±1 SD of the mean.

The worst peak-to-trough decline you've experienced. If NAV went ₦100M → ₦78M → ₦95M, max drawdown is -22%. Tells you the biggest historical 'oh god' moment.

Annualised return ÷ |max drawdown|. Tells you how much return you got per unit of worst-case pain. >0.5 is acceptable; >1.0 is exceptional in equities.

Share of portfolio in your top N positions. >40% in top 3 is concentrated; <20% is diversified. Concentration boosts returns when right and amplifies pain when wrong.

How tightly two assets move together. +1 = perfect sync, 0 = unrelated, -1 = move opposite. NGX equities and US tech ETFs are weakly correlated — that's why owning both adds diversification.

Value at Risk — the loss your portfolio shouldn't exceed on a typical day at a given confidence level. "95% 1-day VaR of ₦3M" means in 5% of days you lose more than ₦3M.

Also called CVaR — the average loss on the days that DO breach the VaR threshold. Captures the depth of the tail, not just where it begins. Always worse than VaR.

Decomposing portfolio return into contributions from asset allocation, security selection, and FX. Tells you whether you made money from skill or just from being in the right asset class.

Sustained decline of >20% from a recent peak. NGX bear runs have lasted 18-36 months historically. The discipline to keep buying through them is where decade-long wealth gets built.

Sustained advance of >20% off a low. NGX-ASI has had monster bull runs in 2017 and 2024. Discipline rule: don't confuse a bull market with personal genius.

Decline of 10-20% from a recent peak. Healthy and common — even in raging bull markets the NGX corrects 10% at least once a year. Distinct from a full bear market.

Total naira you've invested in a position, including buy fees but excluding sells. Realised P&L = sale proceeds − cost basis × portion sold.

Your written 2-3 sentence reason for owning a position. If you can't write it crisply, you don't have one. Re-read before every trim/add decision.

Pre-decided sell price below current price. Removes 'maybe it'll bounce back' bias. Set at entry, not when emotional.

Buying more of a falling stock. Mathematically reduces your average cost; psychologically can also throw good money after bad. Only do it if the thesis is intact.

Net Asset Value — the total naira value of everything in your portfolio right now, including stocks, T-bills, MMFs, cash. Recomputed every time prices update.

How your money is split across asset types and currencies. A balanced Nigerian portfolio mixes T-bills (risk-free yield), NGX equities (local growth), and US ETFs (FX hedge + diversification).

₦/$ exchange rate. Used to translate USD-denominated holdings into NGN for NAV. Move from CBN official rate is normal — track which source you're using.

A bucket inside your portfolio with its own target weight (e.g. EQUITY_NG @ 30%, EQUITY_FX @ 40%). Sleeves let you separate goals (capital growth vs income vs cash buffer) and rebalance discipline.

Difference between actual weight and target weight. Drift > 5% in either direction usually triggers a rebalance trade. The bigger the drift, the more risk-budget is misallocated.

The percentage of your portfolio you intend to keep in this sleeve. Set by your investment policy. Total target weights must sum to ≤100%; cash is the residual.

Tolerance threshold (typically ±5%) around each sleeve's target weight. Only rebalance when drift breaches the band. Reduces trading costs and emotional churn vs calendar rebalancing.

The portion of your portfolio held in cash or near-cash (MMF, ultra-short T-bills). Provides liquidity for opportunities and drawdowns. 5-10% is healthy in normal markets.

Revaluing every position at current prices to get today's NAV. The Quarterly Review's first step. Mandatory before any other analysis — old prices = lies.

Trading to bring sleeves back to target weights. Sell over-allocated sleeves, buy under-allocated. Discipline rule: act when drift exceeds ±5%, not when you 'feel' like trading.

Spreading risk across uncorrelated assets. True diversification: NGX banks + US tech + T-bills + cash. Fake diversification: 10 NGX bank stocks.

How much of your portfolio you put into any single name. Default rule: no more than 7% in one position, 15% in one sector.

Exposure to FX moves. A US ETF up 20% in USD but the naira appreciates 30% leaves you DOWN in naira terms. The other side: ₦/$ depreciation amplifies USD-asset gains.

How long until you need the money. Money needed in <12 months belongs in T-bills/MMF. 5+ year money can ride equity volatility. Match the asset to the horizon, not the headline yield.

Profit (or loss) on positions you've actually sold — taxable in Nigeria (at your income-tax band under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, subject to the share-disposal exemption). Distinct from unrealised P&L, which is paper-only and doesn't yet matter to the tax bill.

Paper gain/loss on positions you still hold. Marked to current price. Becomes Realised P&L only when you sell. Not yet taxable.

Selling losing positions to crystallise a capital loss you can offset against gains, reducing your CGT bill. Re-enter the position later if the thesis still holds. Year-end discipline.

Tax on realised gains from selling shares. Under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (from January 2026), individuals pay at their income-tax band (0-25%); share gains are exempt when yearly proceeds stay under ₦150M and gains within ₦10M. The old flat 10% CGT applied through 2025. Only triggered when you sell.

Withholding Tax on interest income — 10% in Nigeria, deducted at source on dividends. T-bill interest was typically exempt before the Oct 2025 FIRS directive; from 28 Oct 2025 it carries 10% WHT at source. FGN bond coupons remain exempt. MMF distributions usually carry 10%.

0.075% NGX duty on the value of a stock trade. Tiny but adds up over a year of active trading.

Companies Income Tax Act — the historical legal source of the "T-bill interest is tax-free" rule (via a 2011 exemption order that lapsed in 2022). Largely superseded by the Nigeria Tax Act 2025; since the Oct 2025 FIRS directive, T-bill interest carries 10% WHT while FGN bond coupons stay exempt.

Personal Income Tax — progressive 0-25% bands under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (first ₦800K at 0%, top band 25% above ₦50M). Since 2026, realised capital gains are taxed inside these same bands. Most investors only hit dividend WHT.

Public IPO where new shares are issued. You apply for a number of shares at the offer price; allotment depends on demand vs supply.

How many shares you actually receive from your IPO application. If oversubscribed, you get fewer than you applied for and the excess cash is refunded.

First day the IPO shares trade on the NGX. Price can pop or drop relative to offer; long-term value still depends on the underlying business.

The formal SEC-approved offer document. Discloses use of proceeds, risk factors, financials, ownership, and dilution. Always read at least the "Risk Factors" section before applying.

Window (typically 6-12 months post-IPO) when founders, employees, and pre-IPO investors are barred from selling. Lock-up expiry often triggers a price drop from supply hitting the market.

Day-1 price gain over the IPO offer price. Indicates strong demand; signals the deal was "left money on the table" for the issuing company. Common in hot IPOs.