Call Option: Investment vehicle that gives the holder the option to buy something, usually stocks, at a certain price.

Correlation: a relationship between two or more things. In finance specifically, correlation refers to the degree to which two securities move in relation to each other.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): Pooled investment vehicles that trade intraday through the stock market.

Fixed Index Annuity (FIA): An insurance product that provides principal protection and the potential for interest earnings based on the performance of a market index, while offering tax-deferred growth and often imposing surrender charges and caps on returns.

Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT): An investment framework developed by Harry Markowitz that aims to maximize a portfolio's expected return for a given level of risk by combining assets with different return and correlation characteristics. The theory emphasizes diversification, showing that overall portfolio risk can be reduced when assets that do not move in perfect sync are combined.

Option Collar: A risk management strategy that involves simultaneously buying a protective put and selling a covered call on the same asset, creating a defined range of potential outcomes by limiting both downside risk and upside potential.

Put Option: Investment vehicle that gives the holder the option to sell something, usually stocks, at a certain price.

Fed Funds Rate: The target interest rate determined by the Federal Open Market Committee, which commercial banks use as an overnight rate to lend and borrow excess reserves to each other.

Recession: The contractionary period of a business cycle when economic activity (including consumer spending) declines.