Numbers dressed up in fancy suits pretending to be words.
To use something that already exists rather than building something new, which sounds strategic but usually means "we have no budget." The Swiss Army knife of corporate verbs -- it can mean literally anything.
Buying a company using mostly borrowed money, which is the corporate equivalent of buying a house with no money down except the house is a billion-dollar company. The acquired company often ends up paying for its own acquisition, like making someone pay for their own kidnapping ransom.
How quickly you can turn an asset into cash without losing value, which is finance's polite way of asking how fast you can run to the ATM. Your checking account is highly liquid; your collection of vintage Beanie Babies is decidedly not.
The official book of record where all financial transactions are documented, serving as the single source of truth in accounting—or at least it's supposed to be. Modern ledgers are digital, but the concept remains: every debit and credit gets recorded in this master list. It's where accountants go to verify that yes, that expense really happened, and no, you can't just pretend it didn't.
In trading, placing multiple buy or sell orders at different price levels to either manipulate apparent market depth or genuinely scale in/out of positions. Context determines whether it's strategy or securities fraud.
Everything a business owes to others—debts, obligations, and promises to pay that hang over the company like a financial sword of Damocles. It's the right side of the balance sheet that accountants love to balance against assets, creating the fundamental equation of accounting. Can also mean that person on your team who's more problem than solution.
A metric measuring a company's ability to meet short-term obligations with liquid assets, like the current ratio or quick ratio. Think of it as the financial equivalent of asking whether you can make rent next month without selling your car.
Money you borrow today that magically transforms into significantly more money you owe tomorrow, thanks to the mystical powers of interest rates. Think of it as financial time travel where your future self picks up the tab, plus fees. The cornerstone of modern capitalism and the reason your banker drives a nicer car than you do.
The entity that gives you money now in exchange for you giving them more money later, ideally with interest and your sanity intact. Banks, credit unions, and that one friend who still brings up the $20 from 2015 all qualify.
The practice of letting someone borrow money they probably can't pay back, then being shocked when they don't pay it back. Banks do this professionally and call it 'credit risk management'; friends do it and lose both the money and the friendship.
Converting a company's assets into actual cash because it turns out the business model was primarily composed of wishful thinking and spreadsheet optimism. The corporate fire sale that happens after the fire already burned everything down.
A measure of how much debt a company uses relative to its equity, showing financial risk. High leverage means lots of debt; low leverage means the company paid with its own money and didn't maximize returns.
The professional hired to turn a dead company's corpse into cash for creditors. They're the financial undertakers who specialize in converting assets into cold, hard liquidity while disappointed shareholders watch.
A charge imposed by video rental stores when a customer fails to return rented media by the due date. Late fees were a significant revenue stream for rental businesses and could quickly accumulate if tapes sat unreturned.
A retail purchasing arrangement where a customer reserves an item by making partial payments over time until it is fully paid, at which point they receive the merchandise. Common in department stores and discount retailers before the rise of credit cards.
An embezzlement technique where stolen money from customer A is covered using money from customer B, creating a ponzi scheme internal to your own company.
A non-binding promise to maybe do a deal, signed before anyone's actually serious about it. It's what lawyers write when they want to charge more.