List of Glossary Terms
| G20 |
A group of 19 countries and the European Union which replaced the G7 and includes the larger emerging economies such as China and South Africa. Its objectives include promoting growth of the... read more |
| G30 |
An international group 24 of academics, financial leaders and econimists that aims to imporve the world economy through a better understanding of economic impacts and decisions. It also has 16... read more |
| G7 |
This was a group of 7 countries - America, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. It was established in in 1975 and was formed from the "Group of 6" which excluded Canada.... read more |
| GAAP |
Section 19 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS) requires that "the financial statements be prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting practice". The auditor... read more |
| GAI |
30 - 07 - 2020 Gaia (GAI) is an infrastructure investment company. It has three divisions - (1) Infrastructure Partners, which invests in large projects in energy, transport, water and sanitation;... read more |
| GAM |
Global Asset Management (GAM) is a small asset management and energy company that is extremely thinly traded and is about to be de-listed from the JSE. It is therefore of no interest to private... read more |
| GAMMA |
The degree by which the delta changes with respect to changes in the underlying instrument's price. |
| GANN THEORY |
Various analytical techniques developed by legendary trader W.D. Gann. His first prophecy is believed to have happened during World War I when he predicted the Nov 9, 1918, abdication of the... read more |
| GANN WILLIAM |
An American trader of securities who developed a complex system of charts using astrology, geometry and archaic maths. He died in 1955, but left a substantial following who still use his methods... read more |
| GANN'S SQUARE OF 9 |
A trading tool that relates numbers, such as a stock price, to degrees on a circle. The Square of 9 is basically a spiral of numbers. The initial value can be found in the centre of the spiral.... read more |
| GAP |
A day in which the daily range is completely above or below the previous day's daily range. This term normally refers to a bar chart where the low for one day is considerably above the high for... read more |
| GARNISHEE |
A court order which obliges an employer to deduct money from an employee's salary or wage for payment to a creditor. In South Africa a garnishee order cannot be more than 25% of the employee's... read more |
| GAS |
Natural gas is a clean burning hydrocarbon, producing far less carbon dioxide and air pollutants compared to coal, when used to generate electricity. It is abundant, there are estimated to be... read more |
| GAUSSIAN |
A Chinese actuary and quatitative analyst who is best known for his application of gaussian copulas for securitised mortgage bonds leading to the "sub-prime" crisis of 2007/8. Li's formulae justified... read more |
| GAZETTE |
A web site where the government publishes all official notices. Certain legal notices must also be published on this site to be legally binding. |
| GCI |
The global competitiveness index (GCI) is prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF) annually and it ranks 141 countries on how competitive they are. To do this it uses 12 areas which indicate... read more |
| GDI |
An economics concept which is the total income created by the production of final goods and services within the economy. |
| GDP |
The GDP of a country is defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. It is also considered the sum of value added at every... read more |
| GEARING |
The relationship of a company's borrowings or debt to ordinary shareholders' funds. A company can obtain the finance it needs to conduct its operations from two sources: by the issuing of its... read more |
| GEMSTONE |
A cut and polished semi-precious stone used in the making of jewellery. Gemstones can include amber, and pearls which are not stones but organic in origin. On the JSE, the company Gemfields... read more |
| GENERAL EQUITY UNIT TRUST |
A unit trust which focuse on listed shares - as opposed to fixed interest investments or other types of investments. The performance of these funds can be expected to be more-or-less in line... read more |
| GENERAL FUEL LEVY |
A general tax changed per litre of petrol sold. This tax is administered by the National Treasury, and despite most people thinking it is used to maintain the roads, it is a general tax included... read more |
| GENERAL MEETING |
This is a meeting of the shareholders of a company, which is required in terms of section 61 of the Companies Act (71 of 2008). The AGM must be held within six months of... read more |
| GENERAL MINING |
The extraction and exploitation of metals and minerals from the ground. This activity in South Africa is controlled by the Mineral and Petroleum Resource Development Act (MPRDA - 28 of 2002)... read more |
| GENERAL OFFER |
An offer made to all shareholders of a company for the purchase of their shares. The purchase price could be in cash or in shares of a predator company or a combination of both. |
| GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRACTICE |
Section 19 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS) requires that "the financial statements be prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting practice". The auditor... read more |
| GENERIC SCORECARD |
In terms of the BBBEE (Braod Based Black Economic Empowerment) Act, companies over a certain size are required to maintain a scorecard in which black ownership, black management, black employment... read more |
| GEPF |
A pension fund for government employees, the GEPF is the single largest investor on the JSE owning about 12,5% of its market capitalisation and with about R1,8 trillion rand invested. The GEPF... read more |
| GFI |
21 - 08 - 2020 Gold Fields (GFI) is a high-cost international gold mining house with a single mine in South Africa - South Deep. South Deep was bought by Gold Fields in 2006 and it has struggled... read more |
| GIC |
A single lump-sum deposit that earns a guaranteed interest until a known maturity date. GICs are issued by insurance companies. |
| GILT |
Any fixed interest security which has very low risk and relatively low return. Government bonds are considered to be gilts, and especially US Treasury bills. The originally only applied to government... read more |
| GIVE-UP |
When a broker executes an order for another broker's client and the two brokers split the commission; the client pays nothing extra. |
| GLASS STEAGAL |
These are four provisions of the US Banking Act which were sponsored by Senator Glass and Representative Steagall. These provisions separated commercial banking from other financial activities,... read more |
| GLI |
19 - 03 - 2020 Go Life International (GLI) is a company listed in Mauritius with a secondary listing on the JSE's Alt-X market. Its focus is in "nutraceuticals" which are products associated... read more |
| GLN |
07 - 08 - 2020 Glencore (GLN) describes itself as, "one of the world’s largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 90 commodities.... read more |
| GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS INDEX |
The global competitiveness index (GCI) is prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF) annually and it ranks 141 countries on how competitive they are. To do this it uses 12 areas which indicate... read more |
| GLOBAL DOW |
An index created and maintained by the Dow Jones company which tracks the average movement of 150 blue chip shares from around the world. The objective is to track the performance of all world... read more |
| GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM |
The combined economies of all the countries of the world also called the global economic system. It is important for the private investor to develop a view on the state of... read more |
| GLOBAL INFLATION |
This is the average inflation rate of the world tracked by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The global inflation rate has been falling since the 1980's primarily because central banks,... read more |
| GLOBE TRADE CENTRE S.A |
21 - 08 - 2020 GTC is a property group operating in central and Eastern Europe. The company has properties in Poland, Bucharest, Budapest, Belgrade, Sophia and Zagreb. It manages 46 buildings... read more |
| GLOBEX |
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's electronic trading platform. Some futures contracts are available for trading on Globex only during the U.S. evening hours, while others -- such as the very... read more |
| GML |
21 - 09 - 2020 The Gemfields Group (GML) (previously Palinghurst Group) is a mining group that has two major projects: (1) Kagem, the world's largest producer of emeralds (in Zambia) and... read more |
| GND |
30 - 06 - 2020 Grindrod (GND) is an international freight and financial services company which operates in 28 countries. In mid-June 2018, Grindrod unbundled and separately listed its loss-making... read more |
| GOING CONCERN |
A profitable business which is expected to be able to continue in business because it has sufficient cash-flow to meet its commitments. |
| GOING PUBLIC |
A term used to describe the sale of shares of a privately-held company to the public for the first time. |
| GOING SHORT |
A sale of shares before they are purchased. A bear sale (or short sale) is the sale of an undertaking to supply a certain number of shares at a specified date in the future.... read more |
| GOLD |
A precious metal that has been known and kept for thousands of years as a currency and a way to store value. In the past, South Africa has been the largest supplier of gold in the world. In 1970,... read more |
| GOLD FIX |
The result of a twice-a-day dedicated conference between the 15 members of the London Gold Market Fixing Ltd. Previously this meeting was held at the premises of Nathan Meyer Rothchild &... read more |
| GOLD SHARES |
South Africa has traditionally been a gold-producing country and gold shares used to make a large proportion of the JSE, but today, the gold industry has shrunk substantially and gold shares... read more |
| GOLD STANDARD |
A past financial discipline whereby a country's currency was directly linked to that country's gold reserves. Form 1989 until 1933 America was on the gold standard which acted as a limitation... read more |
| GOLDEN MEAN |
The ratio of any two consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, known as phi and equal to 0.618; a proportion that is an important phenomenon in music, art, architecture and biology. The... read more |
| GOLDEN RATIO |
The ratio of any two consecutive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, known as phi and equal to 0.618; a proportion that is an important phenomenon in music, art, architecture and biology. The... read more |
| GOLDEN SECTION |
Any length divided so that the ratio of the smaller to the larger part is equivalent to the ratio between the larger part and the whole and is always 0.618. See also the Fibonacci Sequence. |
| GOOD |
An economic term meaning a product with value. Economists talk about the "goods" and services in the economy. A good can be anything from a raw material to a finnished product - but it is something... read more |
| GOOD THRU DATE |
Good Thru Date order. This order works until executed or cancelled, or until the end of the trading session on the date specified by the trader. |
| GOOD TILL CANCELLED |
Good Till Cancelled order. This order works until executed or cancelled, unlike a Day order, which, if not filled, expires automatically at the end of the trading session on the day it was entered.... read more |
| GOODWILL |
An intangible asset which arises when a holding company pays more for a subsidiary than its book value. Goodwill is also called a "premium arising on acquisition" and is normally written off... read more |
| GOVERNMENT BONDS |
Instruments for short-term borrowing employed by governments. The bills are issued by tender to the money market. Usually, when economists refer to Treasury bills (or T-Bills as they are known)... read more |
| GOVERNMENT BORROWING |
Government borrowing is the excess of a government's spending over its income in a particular year. The deficit is usually funded by government borrowing. The size of the deficit is usually expressed... read more |
| GOVERNMENT DEBT |
Government borrowing is the excess of a government's spending over its income in a particular year. The deficit is usually funded by government borrowing. The size of the deficit is usually expressed... read more |
| GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES PENSION FUND |
A pension fund for government employees, the GEPF is the single largest investor on the JSE owning about 12,5% of its market capitalisation and with about R1,8 trillion rand invested. The GEPF... read more |
| GOVERNMENT GUARANTEED DEBT |
The government is constantly trying to balance the books. This means that they are always looking for additional sources of money to accommodate competing needs. To do this they have a number... read more |
| GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS |
A state-owned enterprise (SOE), is a legal entity owned by the government, that participates in commercial activities. It can either be partially or completely owned by the Government. Examples... read more |
| GPA |
15 - 07 - 2019 On 10th April 2019, Arrowhead announced its intention to merge with Gemgrow. Arrowhead owns 53,3% of Gemgrow. The deal will be structured so that Gemgrow buys all of Arrowhead's... read more |
| GPI |
25 - 09 - 2020 Grand Parade Investments (GPL) is an investment holding company with interests in the gaming industry and the fast food industry. The company is a BEE company which was listed... read more |
| GRADE |
The number of grams per ton of ore milled, usually in a gold mine or other precious metals mine. Mines are categorised by their average grade and it is a key component of their results. Low grade... read more |
| GRAHAM BENJAMIN |
Benjamin Graham is the author of "Security Analysis" and "The Intelligent Investor", two books which Warren Buffett said had a great influence over his approach to share market investing. Graham... read more |
| GRAMM RUDMAN |
An American Act, "The Balanced and Emergency Budget Deficit Control Act" was designed to bring the American budget into balance by 1991 or a series of budget cuts would come into effect. The... read more |
| GRAND SUPER CYCLE |
First proposed by Russian economist Nicolai Kondratiev in his 1926 book, a very long cycle of around 54 years in commodity prices was identified. This was subsequently re-iterated by R. N. Elliott... read more |
| GRANTOR |
A person who sells an option and assumes the obligation to sell (in the case of a call) or buy (in the case of a put) the underlying futures contract at the exercise price. Also referred to as... read more |
| GRANVILLE JOSEPH |
A financial public speaker and writer from America, Joseph Granville championed the the idea of using volumes as a key technical indicator. He developed the On Balance Volume technique (OBV)... read more |
| GRAPH |
In the context of the share market, this is a display or picture of a security that plots price and/or volume (the number of shares changing hands) over time.... read more |
| GRAVESTONE DOJI |
A candlestick pattern with a long upper shadow and where the open and close for the day occur at the low for the day. This candlestick pattern signifies uncertainty in the market and can signify... read more |
| GREEN BONDS |
A debt instrument with a fixed coupon where the money raised is used for climate and environmental projects. Green bonds can be listed on the JSE provided they comply with the listing requirements... read more |
| GREEN CHIP |
Environmentally friendly companies which are usually in the JSE's Socially Responsible Index. |
| GREEN ENGULFING PATTERN |
A bottom candlestick reversal signal, this is a two candlestick pattern consisting of a large green candle enveloping a preceding red candle. This pattern implies that the trend is likely to... read more |
| GREEN FIELDS OPERATIONS |
A business activity, usually in the mining industry, which is a completely new start-up. This is a high-risk, potentially high return undertaking compared to a "brownfields" operation where an... read more |
| GREEN TAX |
A tax introduced by President Cyril Ramaphosa from 1st June 2020 in terms of the Carbon Tax Act (15 of 2019). In terms of this Act, companies will be taxed at the rate of R120 per ton of carbon... read more |
| GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS |
Those gaseous emissions which contribute to global warming and climate change by trapping solar energy inside the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels is the main contributor to these emissions.... read more |
| GREENSPAN ALAN |
The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of America (Fed) from 1987 to 2006. Alan Greenspan is notable because he ushered in the idea of stimulating the economy by the injection of funds to compensate... read more |
| GRF |
10 - 06 - 2020 Group 5 (GRF) is one of South Africa's iconic construction and engineering groups which has taken enormous strain over the past 10 years because of the fall-off in government... read more |
| GROSS DOMESTIC EXPENDITURE |
This is an economics term which refers to the total expenditure within the economy. It is a method of calculating gross domestic product. The formula is: Gross Domestic Product = Consumer... read more |
| GROSS DOMESTIC INCOME |
An economics concept which is the total income created by the production of final goods and services within the economy. |
| GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT |
The GDP of a country is defined as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. It is also considered the sum of value added at every... read more |
| GROSS FIXED CAPITAL FORMATION |
The net increase in fixed capital in the economy, usually over the fiscal year. Basically this includes all new assets in the economy plus improvements to existing assets. So this is everything... read more |
| GROSS LETTABLE AREA |
The area which a property company has available for rent. Real estate investment trusts (REIT) and property companies typically quote this statistic with the interim and final results. It shows... read more |
| GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT |
Gross National Product or GNP is the value of all final goods and services produced within the economy during a specified period. It usually includes all domestic consumption expenditure, domestic... read more |
| GROSS PROFIT |
A company's profit after its direct or variable costs have been deducted. Typically, the gross profit is the final figure in the company's trading account which begins with sales and subtracts... read more |
| GROSS SALES |
A figure in the income statement of a company's financial statements which consists of the company's total sales or income figure. |
| GROUP |
The holding company of a number of subsidiaries. Such companies produce group consolidated accounts once per annum, showing the consolidated position and performance of the holding company and... read more |
| GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS |
In terms of section 30 of the Companies Act, a company is obliged to produce group consolidated financial statements in such a way that inter-company loans are eliminated, the minority or outsider... read more |
| GROUP INVESTOR BEHAVIOUR |
The behaviour of investors as a group. Group investor behaviour creates observable patterns in share prices, indexes and other financial information. This is the basis for technical analysis.... read more |
| GROUP OF THIRTY |
An international group 24 of academics, financial leaders and econimists that aims to imporve the world economy through a better understanding of economic impacts and decisions. It also has 16... read more |
| GROWTH |
In the context of economics, this refers to the increase in a country's gross domestic product (GDP). GDP growth is impacted by many things, but mainly by consumer spending which, in South Africa,... read more |
| GROWTH FUND |
A more speculative mutual fund made up primarily of the growth or performance stocks that are expected to appreciate in price more than the broad market over an extended time period. |
| GROWTH SHARES |
A growth share is a share in a listed company which is expected to grow rapidly. This term is normally applied to companies which have recently listed on the JSE, have raised capital and intend... read more |
| GRP |
Greenbay (GRP) is an Alt-X listed share which is one of the Resilient group of REITs (real estate investment trusts) along with Resilient itself, Rockcastle and Fortress. These companies were... read more |
| GRT |
10 - 09 - 2020 Growthpoint (GRT) is South Africa's largest real estate investment trust (REIT) with a primary listing on the JSE. Prior to COVID-19, it has consistently grown its dividends... read more |
| GSH |
29 - 08 - 2020 Grindrod (GND) is an international freight and financial services company which operates in 28 countries. In mid-June 2018, Grindrod unbundled and separately listed its loss-making... read more |
| GTC |
21 - 08 - 2020 GTC is a property group operating in central and Eastern Europe. The company has properties in Poland, Bucharest, Budapest, Belgrade, Sophia and Zagreb. It manages 46 buildings... read more |
| GTC |
Good Till Cancelled order. This order works until executed or cancelled, unlike a Day order, which, if not filled, expires automatically at the end of the trading session on the day it was entered.... read more |
| GTD |
Good Thru Date order. This order works until executed or cancelled, or until the end of the trading session on the date specified by the trader. |
| GTR |
06 - 07 - 2020 Grit (GTR) is a “pan-African” real estate company - which means that it invests in property on the African continent, but not in South Africa. It has a focus on... read more |
| GUARANTEE FUND |
A fund which is built and sustained by the stock exchange to cover any counter party risks which may exist in securities trading. For example, the risk that a stockbroking firm... read more |
| GUARANTEED INVESTMENT CONTRACTS |
A single lump-sum deposit that earns a guaranteed interest until a known maturity date. GICs are issued by insurance companies. |
| GURU |
A person who is thought to be an expert on predicting the future course of the market. At any point in time there are always experts who are called upon to predict the future of the stock market.... read more |