A leveraged ETF promises a multiple of an index’s return for one day. A 3x fund on the Nasdaq-100 aims to rise 3 percent when the index rises 1 percent on a given day, and to fall 3 percent when it falls 1 percent. An inverse fund does the same with a minus sign. The key words are “for one day”. Over a week, a month or a year the fund can return far more or far less than three times the index, and in a choppy market it can lose money while the index goes nowhere.

Short interest is the number of a company’s shares that have been sold short and not yet bought back. A short seller borrows shares, sells them, and hopes to buy them back later at a lower price before returning them to the lender. Until that buyback happens, the position is open, and it shows up in the short interest count. Investors watch the figure for two reasons. It tells you how many professional skeptics are betting against a stock.

SAB 99 — Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 99, issued by the SEC in 1999 — established the authoritative framework for assessing whether a misstatement in financial statements is material and therefore requires correction or disclosure. It is the document that killed the “5% rule” as a reliable safe harbor. What It Is Before SAB 99, a widespread informal practice held that misstatements below 5% of net income were automatically immaterial and could be left uncorrected.

Segment reporting is the requirement that public companies disclose financial information separately for each significant operating segment of their business. It exists because consolidated financial statements, while accurate in the aggregate, can obscure the performance dynamics of individual business units that investors and analysts need to assess value. What It Is A diversified company might operate a fast-growing software division, a mature hardware business, and a declining services unit. The consolidated income statement shows total revenue and operating income — the blended result.