# Institutional Glossary

- **Beta:** A measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole.
- **Duration:** A measure of the sensitivity of the price of a fixed-income investment to a change in interest rates.
- **Yield Curve:** A line that plots yields of bonds having equal credit quality but differing maturity dates.
- **Inverted Yield Curve:** An interest rate environment in which long-term debt instruments have a lower yield than short-term debt instruments of the same credit quality; often precedes recessions.
- **Credit Spread:** The difference in yield between a U.S. Treasury bond and another debt security of the same maturity but different credit quality.
- **Liquidity:** The efficiency or ease with which an asset or security can be converted into ready cash without affecting its market price.
- **Quantitative Easing (QE):** A monetary policy whereby a central bank buys government bonds or other financial assets to inject money into the economy to expand economic activity.
- **Quantitative Tightening (QT):** A contractionary monetary policy applied by a central bank to decrease the amount of liquidity within the economy.
- **Real Yield:** The nominal yield of a bond minus the expected rate of inflation.
- **Drawdown:** The peak-to-trough decline during a specific record period of an investment, fund, or commodity.