Resources

Glossary

85 words you'll meet on the GSE, on your statement and Contract Note, and in Breakeven, in plain English.

85 terms, A to Z

A

Account statement: Your broker's record of your holdings and transactions over a period. IC Securities customers can get theirs from the IC Wealth app.
Ask price: The lowest price a seller is currently offering shares at. Also called the offer price.
Average cost: What you paid for the shares you hold, fees included, divided by the number of shares. When you sell part of a holding, cost comes out in proportion, so the average stays the same.

B

Bear market: A period when prices across a market fall for a sustained time.
Bid price: The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay for shares.
Bid-ask spread: The gap between the best bid and the best ask. In shares that trade rarely it can be wide.
Bond: A loan to a government or company that pays interest (coupons) and returns the amount lent at the end of its term.
Bonus issue: Free extra shares given to existing shareholders in proportion to what they hold. Your holding gets bigger, but the price usually adjusts down, so its total value doesn't jump.
Break-even price: The lowest price you can sell all your shares at and get back everything you paid: the shares, the buying fees and the selling fees too.
Break-even with dividends: The break-even price counting the dividends you've already received, after withholding tax. It's lower than the price-only break-even.
Brokerage: Your broker's commission on a trade. With IC Securities it's a percentage of the trade's value that falls as the trade gets bigger.
Bull market: A period when prices across a market rise for a sustained time.
Buy-back price: If you sold now, the highest later price at which the money from the sale buys back the same number of shares, after fees on both trades.

C

Capital gain: The profit when you sell an investment for more than it cost you. Measured properly, the cost includes the buying fees and the proceeds are after the selling fees.
Capital loss: The loss when you sell an investment for less than it cost you, after fees on both sides.
Central Securities Depository: The organisation that holds shares electronically in investors' names and records who owns what. In Ghana, the CSD.
Closing price: A stock's official price at the end of a trading day. Breakeven values your holdings at it and checks alerts against it, as well as against trades during the day.
Collective investment scheme: A fund that pools many investors' money and invests it together, such as a mutual fund or unit trust.
Contract Note: The document your broker issues for each trade, listing the shares, price, every charge and the total. It's the final record of what you were charged.
Corporate action: Something a company does that affects its shares: dividends, bonus issues, rights issues, splits, mergers.
Cost basis: Everything you paid to acquire a holding: the price of the shares plus brokerage and levies. Profit and loss are measured against it.
Coupon: The interest a bond pays, usually as a fixed percentage of its face value.
CSD levy: A statutory charge of 0.15% of a trade's value, paid to the Central Securities Depository.
Cum-dividend: Shares bought cum-dividend come with the next dividend. It's the opposite of ex-dividend.

D

Declaration date: The day a company announces a dividend: how much per share and the key dates.
Diversification: Spreading money across different investments so that one doing badly has less effect on the whole.
Dividend: Part of a company's profit paid to its shareholders, usually per share. In Ghana it's paid after withholding tax.
Dividend advice: The notice from the company's registrar showing your dividend: shares entitled, the amount per share, the tax withheld and the net paid.
Dividend yield: A year's dividends per share divided by the share price, as a percentage. It changes whenever the price does.

E

ETF: Exchange-traded fund: a fund whose units trade on a stock exchange like shares.
Ex-dividend date: The first day a share trades without its next dividend. To receive it, you must hold the shares at the end of the day before.

F

Fee tier: A band of trade sizes with its own fee rate. With IC Securities: up to GHS 500, up to GHS 5,000, up to GHS 10,000, and above. The tier's rate applies to the whole trade.
Final dividend: The dividend paid after a company's full financial year, usually once its accounts are approved.

G

Ghana Stock Exchange: The GSE: Ghana's stock exchange in Accra, where listed companies' shares are bought and sold through licensed brokers.
Gross consideration: The value of a trade before fees: shares × price.
GSE Composite Index: The GSE-CI: an index that tracks the overall level of share prices on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
GSE Financial Stocks Index: The GSE-FSI: an index that tracks the share prices of listed banks and other financial companies.
GSE levy: A statutory charge of 0.35% of a trade's value, paid to the Ghana Stock Exchange.

H

Holding: The shares of one security you own, with every trade in them. Also called a position.

I

Index: A single number that tracks the prices of a group of shares, so you can see how a market or sector moved.
Interim dividend: A dividend paid partway through a company's financial year, before the full-year results.
IPO: Initial public offering: when a company first sells its shares to the public and lists on an exchange.
ISIN: International Securities Identification Number: a 12-character code that identifies one security worldwide, starting with a country code (GH for Ghana).

L

Levy: A charge set by a market institution rather than your broker. On the GSE there are four, 0.70% of a trade's value in total, whichever broker you use.
Licensed Dealing Member: A brokerage firm licensed to trade on the Ghana Stock Exchange for clients. IC Securities is one.
Limit order: An instruction to buy at no more than, or sell at no less than, a price you set. It may fill partly, or not at all.
Liquidity: How easily shares can be bought or sold without moving the price. Many GSE stocks trade thinly, so orders can take time to fill.
Listed company: A company whose shares are admitted to trading on a stock exchange.

M

Management fee: A fund's yearly charge, a percentage of what it manages. It's usually taken from the fund itself, so it's already reflected in the unit price.
Market capitalisation: A company's total market value: its share price × the number of shares in issue.
Market development levy: A statutory charge of 0.05% of a trade's value.
Market order: An instruction to buy or sell at the best price available now, rather than at a price you set.
Mutual fund: A fund that pools investors' money and is priced by its net asset value per share or unit.

N

Net asset value: NAV: a fund's assets minus its liabilities. Per unit, it's the price units are bought and sold at.
Net consideration: What a trade costs or pays after fees: for a buy, the value plus charges; for a sale, the value minus charges.

O

Opening balance: Shares you already held when you started tracking, entered as a quantity and a total cost instead of individual trades.
Order: Your instruction to a broker to buy or sell a number of shares, at the market or at a limit price. Fees are charged on what actually trades.

P

Partial fill: When only part of an order trades, for example because there weren't enough sellers at your price. Each fill shows on your statement.
Payment date: The day a dividend is paid to everyone who was entitled to it.
Pesewa: One hundredth of a Ghana cedi. Fees are rounded to the pesewa, one charge at a time.
Portfolio: All the investments one person or fund holds.
Price alert: An email when a stock's price reaches a level you chose: break-even, a profit or loss after fees, or a plain share price. Checked every 15 minutes while the GSE is open, and at the close.
Profit after fees: What a sale would leave you with after the selling fees, minus everything the shares cost you, buying fees included.

Q

Qualifying date: The date the company checks its register to see who receives a dividend. Also called the record date or book closure date.

R

Realized profit or loss: The profit or loss on shares you've already sold, after fees.
Registrar: The firm that keeps a company's register of shareholders and pays its dividends.
Rights issue: An offer to existing shareholders to buy new shares, usually at a discount, in proportion to what they already hold.
Round trip: A purchase and a sale of the same shares (or a sale and a buy-back). Fees are paid on both legs, so a round trip always costs more than either trade alone.

S

SEC levy: A statutory charge of 0.15% of a trade's value, paid to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Securities and Exchange Commission: The SEC: Ghana's regulator for the securities market, which licenses brokers, fund managers and investment advisers.
Sell simulator: Try a sale before you make it: shares and a price in, every charge, what you'd receive and the profit or loss after fees out.
Settlement: When shares and money actually change hands after a trade, a set number of business days later. Your broker can tell you the current cycle.
Share: A unit of ownership in a company. Owning shares can give you a vote and a share of any dividends.
Share split: When a company divides each share into several. You hold more shares at a lower price each; the total value doesn't change.

T

Target price: The lowest price at which selling your holding gives the profit you chose, after all fees.
Tick size: The smallest step a price can move by. On the GSE it's GHS 0.01, which is why break-even and target prices land on whole pesewas.
Ticker symbol: The short code a security trades under, such as MTNGH for MTN Ghana.
Total charges: All the fees on one trade added together: the levies plus the brokerage. Each is rounded to the pesewa before they're added.
Trading session: The hours the market is open for trading. The GSE trades on weekdays from 10:00 to 15:00, Ghana time.
Treasury bill: A short-term loan to the government, usually 91, 182 or 364 days, sold at a discount and repaid at face value.

U

Unit trust: A fund divided into units; you buy and sell units at a price based on the fund's net asset value.
Unrealized profit or loss: What you'd make or lose if you sold everything at the last close, after selling fees.

V

Volatility: How much and how quickly a price moves up and down. It describes the past; it doesn't predict the future.
Volume: The number of shares traded in a period, usually a day.

W

Withholding tax: Tax taken from a dividend before it's paid to you. The rate is on your dividend advice; check the Ghana Revenue Authority for the current rules.