The central bank in each currency area (e.g. the US or the eurozone) essentially acts as the “bank for the banks”.

Commodities are raw materials, like iron ore or copper, or agricultural products, like wheat. Commodities futures are often bought and sold (i.e. traded) by investors.

Compound interest is interest paid on interest (as opposed to interest paid on the principal amount of the loan)

A conglomerate is a company that owns several businesses, usually providing different services. Conglomerates tend to be large, multinational companies with several subsidiaries.

Consumer discretionary companies are companies that sell goods and services that people want but don’t need – the flipside of consumer staples.

The consumer price index is best thought of as, literally, a basket of everyday things that you can buy and services that you can pay to use. The price index assigns a “weighting” to each item in the basket based on its perceived importance to the typical person (so basic expenses like food are usually weighted quite heavily).

Consumer staple companies are companies that sell goods that people pretty much need come rain or shine.

Consumers go out and spend money doing things and buying things. You are a consumer, and so are your friends and family

A CDS allows investors to hedge or bet against a bond by buying what’s effectively bond insurance. The value of a CDS typically rises when the value of a bond falls – usually because investors believe its issuer’s likely to default – and in the event of a missed bond repayment, a CDS actually pays the lost amount of money to its owner.

There are a handful of major credit rating agencies (e.g. Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s) which assess the ability of a country or company to pay back its debt. The best rating is AAA; anything at or above BBB- is referred to as “investment grade”.