Personal Finance
What is the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA?
Roth is taxed now but grows tax-free; traditional is tax-deferred until withdrawal.
What is the term for the first time a company sells its stock to the public?
What is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?
What is the opposite of inflation?
What is deflation?
Who is the current chair of the Federal Reserve
Who is Jerome Powell?
What event in 2008 caused a worldwide financial crisis?
The collapse of the housing market/subprime mortgage crisis.
What does HYSA stand for, and why do people use one?
High-Yield Savings Account; it pays a higher interest rate on savings.
What is the main difference between an ETF (exchange-traded fund) and a mutual fund?
ETFs trade like stocks throughout the day, while mutual funds are priced once per day.
What is the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) responsible for?
Setting monetary policy, mainly through interest rates and open market operations.
Who is the CEO of the largest company in the world by market cap?
Jensen Huang
What was the name of the U.S. bank that failed on March 10, 2023, marking one of the largest bank failures since 2008?
Silicon Valley Bank.
What is a margin account in a brokerage, and why is it riskier than a cash account?
It allows you to borrow money to invest (leverage), which can increase both gains and losses.
What is a circuit breaker in the stock market, and why is it used?
A mechanism that halts trading if prices fall too sharply, to prevent panic selling.
What is opportunity cost?
The value of the next best alternative you give up when making a choice.
Who was Alan Greenspan?
Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.
What year did the Great Depression begin?
What is 1929?
What protection does SIPC provide for brokerage accounts in the U.S.?
It insures securities and cash in brokerage accounts up to $500,000 if the brokerage fails
What is the difference between common stock and preferred stock?
Common gives voting rights and variable dividends; preferred has fixed dividends but usually no voting rights.
How many members sit on the Federal Open Market Committee?
12 (7 Board of Governors + 5 regional Fed bank presidents).
Who is Satya Nadella, and what company does he lead?
He is the CEO of Microsoft.
In 2022, what event caused global inflation to surge due to energy and food supply shocks?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
What is the credit utilization ratio, and why is it important?
The percentage of available credit you’re using; keeping it low improves your credit score.
What was the name of the law passed after the 1929 crash to regulate securities and prevent another market collapse?
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (which created the SEC).
What is the main difference between fiscal policy and monetary policy?
Fiscal = government taxes/spending; monetary = central bank controls money supply and interest rates.
Who is Andy Jassy, and what major tech company does he lead?
CEO of Amazon, succeeding Jeff Bezos.
In 2002, which telecommunications giant filed for bankruptcy after a massive accounting scandal?
WorldCom