Base currency
The currency in which the net asset value of each portfolio is calculated.

Bear/bearish
An index experiencing a prolonged fall (technically of 20% or more) is said to be in a bear market. A bearish investor may express negative sentiment and expect such a fall.

Benchmark
A comparator against which investment funds measure their performance; usually a recognised index such as the FTSE 100 or S&P 500.

Bloomberg
A financial data and news company headquartered in New York. Traders, fund managers and analysts use Bloomberg terminals to extract data, securities’ prices and other financial information.

Blue chip
A familiar name for the largest stocks listed on an exchange. The term comes from poker, where blue betting chips are traditionally of the highest value.

Bond
A debt investment where an investor loans money to an entity for a defined period of time at a variable or fixed interest rate.

Bottom-up stock selection/portfolio construction
An investing approach which focuses on the analysis of individual stocks rather than the broader market and economic environment.

Bull/bullish
An index experiencing a prolonged rise (technically of 20% or more) is said to be in a bull market. A bullish investor may express positive sentiment and expect such a rise.

Climate Action 100+
Climate Action 100+ refers to an investor-led initiative to encourage companies subject to engagement to achieve certain goals. The Polar Capital Emerging Market Stars team currently participates in the initiative with regard to Reliance Industries.

Closed-ended
This describes a fund in which the number of shares is fixed at any given time. These can be bought and sold on the stock market, with no impact on the underlying portfolio. The fund may create more shares through new issues or buy back shares to reduce the number.

Commodities
These are raw materials, including natural resources such as oil and gold. So-called ‘hard’ commodities include industrial and precious metals, ‘soft’ commodities include agricultural products such as coffee and wheat.

Convertible
Convertibles are securities that can be converted into common stock on the stock exchange. Convertibles are usually convertible bonds where bond holders can convert their creditor position to an equity holder at an agreed upon price.

Coupon
This describes the interest paid regularly on a bond, expressed as a percentage of the bond’s par value (the value at which it was bought).

Cum/Cumulative performance
The total amount the fund has gained or lost in the period specified as a percentage. Also see ‘Ann/annualised performance’, ‘Discrete performance’, ‘Gross performance’ and ‘Net performance’.

Custodian
The custodian is a financial institution responsible for safeguarding, worldwide, the listed securities and certain cash assets of the company, as well as the income arising from them, through provision of custodial, settlement and associated services.

Dealing
Arranging the sale and purchase of units or shares in a fund/closed-ended investment company.

Dealing cut-off
The specified end of the trading day to accurately define settlement periods with respect to buying and selling trades.

Default risk
This describes the likelihood that a borrower (individual, country or company) cannot repay a debt. Rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s provide credit ratings on companies and governments.

Deflation
The inverse of inflation, this is when the prices of goods and services fall. A country is in deflation if its inflation level drops below 0%.

Depositary
Under AIFMD (see above) rules a company must appoint a depositary whose duties in respect of investments, cash and similar assets include: safekeeping; verification of ownership and valuation; and cash monitoring. Under the AIFMD rules, the depositary has strict liability for the loss of the company’s financial assets in respect of which it has safe-keeping duties. The depositary’s oversight duties will include but are not limited to share buybacks, dividend payments and adherence to investment limits.

Derivatives
A derivative is a contract between two or more parties, the value of which fluctuates in accordance with the value of an underlying security. Examples of derivatives are Put and Call Options, Swap contracts, Futures and Contracts for Difference. The use of derivatives is to protect the capital value of the portfolio or for efficient portfolio management. A derivative can be an asset or a liability and is a form of gearing because it can increase the economic exposure to shareholders.

Developed markets
This describes countries with advanced economies. They often display characteristics such as high household incomes, robust regulatory and legal bodies, openness to foreign ownership and efficient capital market institutions. Examples may include the US, Japan, Germany and the UK.

Discount
A discount arises when the share price of an investment company is lower than the underlying value. This is often represented as a percentage figure. The inverse of a discount is a ‘premium’.

Discrete annual performance
Discrete performance is calculated between two fixed specific times and static dates. The aim is to demonstrate how consistently an investment has performed over time. This differs from cumulative performance, which aims to show overall performance between two set dates. Also see ‘Ann/annualised performance’, ‘Cum/Cumulative performance’, ‘Gross performance’ and ‘Net performance’.

Dist/Distributing Class
Any share class which can declare and distribute dividends. These are sometimes called inc/income share classes.

Dividend
An income payment made to shareholders of a company or fund, from its profits. These are usually paid quarterly, six-monthly or annually in accordance with a fund or company’s dividend policy.

Do No Significant Harm (DNSH)
A principle established under Article 2(17) of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. It is one of the three elements for the assessment of sustainable investments and seeks to ensure that actions that support one environmental objective do not negatively impact other objectives.

Drawdown
This is the difference between the highest price and lowest price of an asset over a given period, usually appearing as a percentage. This should not be confused with pension drawdown, which describes the act of accessing and receiving accumulated pension monies.

Duration
In the context of equities, duration refers to the time horizon over which a stock is expected to generate cash flow. Long-duration stocks are expected to generate the bulk of their cash flow in the distant future - these are generally “growth” companies. By comparison, short-duration stocks are usually well-established companies that produce high levels of current cash flow.

In the context of bonds, duration measures how sensitive a bond is to any changes in interest rates. Expressed in years, the number shows the time it would take for an investor to recoup the present value of a bond’s cash flows. The shorter a bond's duration, the less volatile it is likely to be.

Earnings per share (EPS)
A company’s profitability expressed on a per share basis and calculated by dividing the company’s annual earnings after tax by the weighted average number of shares in issue.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)
This is a measure of a company’s profitability and an alternative to net income. By including these elements, EBITDA attempts to represent the cash profit generated by the company's operations.

Emerging markets
Emerging markets are countries progressing toward advanced status, usually shown by some development in financial markets, the existence of some form of stock exchange and a regulatory body.

Equities
Also called stocks and shares, these are bought and sold by investors, normally on a stock exchange and represent part ownership of a company.

ESG
Environmental, Social and Governance criteria are used by companies and investors alike to rank, compare and evidence how sustainable a business’s practices are. This may form part of an investor’s assessment of a prospective investment.

FCA
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the financial services industry in the UK. Its role includes protecting consumers, keeping the industry stable and promoting healthy competition between financial service providers. See also ‘SEC’.

Fixed income
Any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. A bond is an example of a fixed income security.

Frontier market
Frontier markets are developing countries advancing toward emerging market status.

Futures/Futures contracts
These are a type of derivative mostly used in commodity, currency and stock markets. They describe a legal agreement to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price at a given time in the future.

Gearing
Gearing describes all external borrowings of a company and any subsidiaries. According to its own policy, an investment trust may borrow money to invest. This has the capacity to enhance returns but could also increase losses.

Geographic exposure
The geographical location in which the holdings of a fund are listed. Exposure represents the relative risk particular to the percentage of investment in that particular geographic location.

Growth investing
This is an investment strategy that aims to generate capital growth by investing in companies growing at above-average rates compared to their industry or the market. Growth investors often find opportunities for such growth in small or young companies with the ability to grow profit potential. Quality growth investors may look for more mature companies with a history of consistently high earnings growth.

Gross performance
The amount the fund has gained or lost over a given period as a percentage, before any fees have been deducted.

Hedged class
A share class which is denominated in a currency other than the base currency of the portfolio. The investment manager employs techniques and instruments to protect against fluctuations between the class and the base currency of the portfolio.

High water mark
A high water mark is the highest peak in value that an investment trust, fund or account has reached in the context of a specified period of time.

IFRS
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are accounting standards which are developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The IASB sets IFRS Accounting Standards and the ISSB sets IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.

Index
The benchmark the fund has used to track performance. This may be a well-known benchmark such as the FTSE 100 or a niche collection of similar companies, to allow a clear and relevant performance comparison.

Inflation
A measure of the change in the average price level of a basket of goods and services in a particular economy.

Information ratio
This measures the risk-adjusted returns of an asset or fund relative to a benchmark. Often expressed as a percentage, the higher the ratio, the better risk-adjusted performance has been. See also ‘Sharpe ratio’.

Investment company
In Section 833 of the Companies Act 2006, an investment company is defined as a company which invests its funds in shares, land or other assets with the aim of spreading investment risk.

Investment trust
This is a type of collective investment vehicle, constituted as a limited company with a fixed capital structure (see ‘Closed-ended’) and incorporated under company law. Investment trusts seek to offer investors a way to diversify their portfolios, spread risk and gain access to professional fund management.

Investment trust tax status
UK Corporation Tax law (Section 1158 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010) allows an investment company (referred to in tax law as an investment trust) to be exempt from tax on its profits realised on investment transactions, provided it complies with certain rules. These are similar to Section 833 above but further require that the company must be listed on a regulated stock exchange and that it cannot retain more than 15% of income received. The directors’ report contains confirmation of the company’s compliance with this law and its consequent exemption from taxation on capital gains.

Initial Public Offering (IPO)
An IPO marks the first time a company’s shares are listed on the stock market.

ISIN
International Securities Identification Number. A unique international code which identifies a security’s issue. Each country has a national numbering agency which assigns ISIN numbers for securities in that country.

Key Information Documents (KID)
Under the EU PRIIPs Regulation, Key Information Documents are pre-contractual document designed to help clarify important information on investment products and help investors compare them easily. Distinct from a Key Investor Information Document (KIID), KIDs include forward-looking performance scenarios, using historical data as well as four different economic conditions (from bad to good).

Key Investor Information Document (KIID)
Key Investor Information Documents were introduced under the UCITs regulatory framework, designed to replace a fund’s simplified prospectus so that non-expert investors can get the information they need about a product in a short, standardised format. KIIDs show past performance whereas KIDs will also include forward-looking performance scenarios.

Leverage
The borrowing of money with the intent to grow the value of an investment.

Liquidity
The ease with which a security can be traded on the market, usually defined by turnover of the shares divided by the number of shares in issue.

Long
Buying stocks/shares and other securities with the aim of generating capital gains and income from positive performance of those assets.

Manager/investment manager
This describes the firm and team running an investment strategy on behalf of investors. In this instance, Polar Capital LLP is the investment manager as well as the AIFM (see above). The responsibilities and fees payable to Polar Capital are set out in the Strategic Report.

Management fee
The amount payable to an investment manager to cover costs associated with research, stock selection, portfolio management and investment expertise.

Market capitalisation/market cap
This represents the total value of a company’s shares. It is calculated by multiplying the current share price by the number of shares in issue. When combined with the value of a company’s debt this gives the ‘Enterprise Value’, or total value, of a company. Market cap exposure refers to the percentage of a fund’s assets that are invested in companies of a particular size e.g. small cap, mid cap and large cap.

Monthly distribution
Refers to income paid out to investors of a fund on a monthly basis. The regularity of a fund’s income policy is outlined in its prospectus.

Net Asset Value (NAV)
The NAV is the value attributed to the shareholders of the company minus the liabilities, presented either on a per share or total basis. The value of the company’s assets, principally investments made in other companies and cash being held, minus any liabilities. The NAV is also described as ‘Shareholders’ funds’ per share. The NAV is often expressed in pence per share after being divided by the number of shares which have been issued. The NAV per share is unlikely to be the same as the share price which is the price at which the company’s shares can be bought or sold by an investor. The NAV per ordinary share is published daily.

Net performance
The amount the fund has gained or lost over a given period as a percentage, after any fees have been deducted.

Non-executive Director
Listed companies are overseen by a board of directors who are appointed by letter rather than a contract of employment. Investment companies rarely have executive directors. Remuneration of the non-executive directors is set out in the Directors’ Remuneration Report while the duties of the board and the various committees are set out in the Corporate Governance Statement.

Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF)
This is a figure representing all annual charges and other payments taken from the fund.

Open-Ended
An open-ended fund is a collective investment scheme which does not have restrictions on the amount of shares it can issue. The manager creates and redeems shares in line with investor demand. Unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEICs) are examples of open-ended funds.

Outperformance
Where an equity or financial instrument has performed better than the market return.

Overweight
Where a fund has more of a particular exposure, be it to a specific security, geography or market capitalisation banding, than the respective weight in the underlying benchmark portfolio.

Passive investing
This describes a strategy whereby a fund is created to track the performance of an index such as the FTSE 100. As these so-called passive funds, also known as tracker funds or index trackers, simply mimic a particular market, they often do not have human fund managers.

Performance attribution
The difference between the portfolio return and the benchmark return. The top contributors to the fund reflect the portfolio holdings which most contributed to positive performance in the fund. The top detractors indicate which holdings in the portfolio influenced underperformance in the fund against the benchmark. Performance can also be attributed to geographic, sector, subsector and style level.

Performance Fee
A fee charged on any returns that the fund achieves above its performance fee benchmark. These fees can be subject to a ‘high water mark’ meaning performance must be exceed a prior peak before the performance fee can be applied. Please refer to a fund’s prospectus for further information.

Portfolio
A grouping of financial assets such as stocks, bonds and cash equivalents, often managed by a financial professional.

Premium
A premium arises when the share price of an investment company is higher than the underlying value. This is often represented as a percentage figure. The inverse of a premium is a ‘discount’.

Price/earnings ratio (P/E ratio)
A way to estimate the future earnings potential of a particular company or investment trust. It is calculated by taking the current share price and dividing it by the earnings per share (EPS). The P/E ratio also gives an indication of how quickly the company is expected to grow – a high P/E indicates that a company is expected to see EPS grow quickly in the future.

Price return
This measures the performance of an investment, only taking into account capital growth. If the asset pays an income, this is ignored. Price return is commonly expressed as a percentage figure.

Price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio)
This measures the market's valuation of a company relative to its book value (a company's total assets minus its total liabilities). A P/B below 1.0 generally indicates an undervalued stock while a P/B above 1.0 suggests the stock price is trading at a premium to the company's book value.

Principle Adverse Impacts (PAI)
As defined under Article 4 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, PAIs are a concept developed to better display the adverse impact investments can have on various sustainability factors. Companies report on these by scoring the sustainability of their investments based on a set of adverse impact indicators called the PAI indicators. 

Private equity
Shares held in a company not listed on a public stock exchange.

Prospectus
A fund or investment trust’s prospectus is a document which lays out information such as its management’s objectives, investment strategies, performance, distribution policy and fees.

Quantitative Easing (QE)
This is a type of monetary policy, used by central banks to encourage lending and spending. They increase an economy’s money supply in a bid to avoid deflation. QE often involves a central bank purchasing government bonds. Also see the inverse ‘Quantitative Tightening (QT)’.

Quantitative Tightening (QT)
This is the inverse of QE (above), where a central bank reduces its balance sheet instead of expanding it. It does this by holding the bonds it bought during QE until they mature (passive tightening) or by selling the bonds on the secondary market (active tightening). The goal is to reduce the amount of money in circulation and cool an overheating economy.

Registrar
This is the person responsible for keeping a register of shareholders in a company or fund and issuing certificates for individual quoted companies. They also have other administration duties including distributing dividends.

Rights issue
This describes how a publicly listed firm can issue new shares to existing shareholders in a bid to raise money to expand its business or avoid financial difficulties. Existing shareholders have the right to buy the shares before anyone else. The issuance of more shares will dilute the value of the shares already in existence.

Risk
In investment terms, this describes the likelihood that an investment will deliver a negative return. Given how many factors influence this, both inside and outside a company’s control, investment risk can vary considerably between assets. Investors will often hold a range of securities with different risk profiles to mitigate the effect of any one holding on their portfolio.

Risk asset
A risk asset is any investable asset that carries a degree of risk. This normally refers to assets carrying a significant degree of price volatility such as shares, commodities, high-yield bonds, real estate and currencies.

Risk-on
A ‘risk-on’ mood refers to investors or markets willingness to take on risk when investing.

Risk-off
A ‘risk-off’ mood refers to investors or markets reluctance to invest in higher-risk assets.

SEC
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a US government agency created by Congress to regulate the securities markets and protect investors. See also, ‘FCA’.

Sector/subsector exposure
The percentage of the fund’s assets which are invested in a particular sector, industry or subsector.

Security
A financial instrument such as a stock or bond, often traded on an exchange.

SEDOL
Stock Exchange Daily Official List. A SEDOL number is a unique code used in the UK and Ireland to identify securities.

SFDR
The European Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) requires asset managers to assess and disclose how they incorporate sustainability risks into their investment processes, as well as how they consider investment decisions that might result in negative effects on sustainability factors.

Share buyback
Companies may choose to buy their own shares on the stock market and retire them. The aim here is to increase the value of outstanding shares and may represent faith in the future value creation of the company.

Share class
Share class is a designation applied to a share/unit in a fund. Different share classes within the same fund will confer different rights on their owners. These may appear as a letter designation to show different pricing arrangements or to show if fund income is distributed or reinvested (e.g. Y Acc, W Inc).

Sharpe Ratio
A measure of risk adjusted performance. The higher the ratio, the better risk-adjusted performance has been. See also ‘Information ratio’.

Shorting/Short-selling
Borrowing shares to sell in the open market with the goal of buying these shares back at lower prices in the future, and at that time returning the shares to the lender.

SICAV
A société d'investissement à capital variable (SICAV) is an open-ended investment fund structure offered by European financial companies.

SORP
The Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for investment trusts is issued by the AIC and provides recommendations on financial reporting that supplement official accounting standards. The financial statements of the company are prepared in accordance with the investment trust SORP.

Swap
This is a derivative contract between two parties, who choose to swap the investment returns from two different instruments. The most common markets for swaps are currencies and interest rates.

Top-down stock selection/portfolio construction
When populating portfolios, top-down investors begin by analysing macroeconomic conditions and industry trends before looking at individual companies. This is the opposite to bottom-up stock picking which begins at a company level.

Total return
This measures the performance of an investment, taking into account capital growth and the effect of reinvesting income back into the asset. It is commonly expressed as a percentage figure.

Tracking Error
Measures how closely the fund’s performance follows the benchmark.

Treasury shares
Treasury shares are the company’s own shares that have been bought back from shareholders and not cancelled but held in treasury. Such shares may be reissued into the market at a premium to NAV. Treasury shares do not attract the right to receive dividends or have any other voting rights.

UCITS Fund
UCITS or ‘undertakings for the collective investment in transferable securities’ describes investment funds which can operate across the European Union if authorised in one member state.

UK-adopted IAS
The international accounting standards adopted by the UK Endorsement Board after delegation of adoption powers. This includes International Accounting Standards (IAS), IFRS and related interpretations, subsequent amendments to those standards and related interpretations, future standards and related interpretations issued or adopted by the IASB.

UN PRI
UN PRI refers to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing, six principles which offer possible actions for incorporating ESG issues into investment practise. In signing the Principles, investors publicly commit to adopt and implement them, where consistent with fiduciary responsibilities.

UN SSDGs
Refers to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There are 17 SDGs, created with the aim of "peace and prosperity for people and the planet...” while tackling climate change and working to preserve oceans and forests.

Underperformance
Where an equity or financial instrument has performed worse than the market return.

Underweight
Where a fund has less of a particular exposure, be it to a specific security, geography or market capitalisation banding, than the respective weight in the underlying benchmark portfolio.

Valuation
The worth of an asset/company based on its current price.

Value investing
This is an investment strategy that involves picking stocks which appear to be trading for less than their intrinsic or book value. The aim is to benefit from a near-term positive catalyst such as a management change, new corporate strategy or general renewed market interest, which could lift the value of the shares.

Volatility of returns
Volatility describes the price movement of an investment. High volatility indicates frequent and significant price movement, whereas low volatility investments have less frequent or severe fluctuations in price.

YTD performance
Year-to-date. Refers to the amount the fund/trust has gained or lost since the first day of the calendar year.

Yield/Historic yield
Yield describes the income an investor may receive from an asset such as a share, bond or income-oriented fund. It is often expressed as a percentage, relative to the asset price. To calculate the historic yield (dividend return) of a fund, we divide the dividend per share for a particular period of time by the net asset value per share at a particular date and multiply by 100.