Terminology

I am Realtor. I'm not a lender-- so I am constantly learning more and more about the mortgage industry. I will continue to share weekly updates from WR Starkey. I want to make sure you can get all of the information out of it that they offer. Here are the basics:

So what does all of it mean?

Mortgage Bond: A bond secured by a mortgage on a property. Mortgage bonds are backed by real estate or physical equipment that can be liquidated. These are usually considered high-grade safe investments.

Treasuries: Negotiable U.S. Government debt obligation backed by its full faith and credit. Treasuries are issued by the U.S. government in order to pay for gonvernment projects. The money paid out for a Treasury Bond is essentially a loan to the government. As with any loan, repayment of pricipal is accommanied by a specified interest rate. These bonds are guaranteed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government, meaning that they are extremely low risk (since the government can simply print money to pay back the loan).

Consensus Estimate: When you hear that a company has "missed estimates" or "beaten estimates", these are references to consensus estimates. Based on projections, models, sentiments and research, analysts strive to come up with an estimate of what the company will do in the future. Obviously, consensus estimates are not an exact science. This leads some market pundits to believe that the market is not as efficient as often purported, and that the efficiency is driven by estimates about a multitude of future events that may not be accurate. This might help to explain why a company's stock quickly adjusts to the new information provided by quarterly earnings and revenue numbers when these figures diverge from the consensus estimate.

Consumer Confidence: Consumer confidence, measured by the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), is defined as the degree of optimism on the state of the economy that consumers (like you and me) are expressing through their activities of savings and spending. The CCI is prepared by the Conference Board, and was first calculated in 1985. In that year the result of the index was arbitrarily set to 100, representing the index'sbenchmark. This value is adjusted monthly on the basis of a household survey of consumers' opinions on current conditions and future expectations of the economy. Opinions on current conditions make up 40% of the index, with expectations of future conditions comprising the remaining 60%. In the glossary on its website, the Conference Board defines the Consumer Confidence Survey as "a monthly report detailing consumer attitudes and buying intentions, with data available by age, income and region". In the most simplistic terms, when their confidence is trending up, consumers spend money, indicating a healthy economy. When confidence is trending down, consumers are saving more than they are spending, indicating the economy is in trouble. The idea is that the more confident people feel about the stability of their incomes, the more likely they are to make purchases.

Durable Goods Orders: A category of consumer goods, durables are products that do not have to be purchased frequently. Some examples of durables are appliances, home and office furnishings, lawn and garden equipment, consumer electronics, toy makers, small tool manufacturers, sporting goods, photographic equipment, and jewelry. Also known as "durable goods".
Consumer goods are often classified as durables or non-durables. Durables are the stuff you buy to last, like a TV or a freezer

(Info found on Investopedia.com and InvestorWords.com)