Trailing earnings

This one is not written up yet

The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.

Written up from the same chapter

• Contango and backwardationThe two shapes a commodity futures curve can take — contango when the futures price is above spot, backwardation when it is below.
• Current yieldA bond's annual coupon in rupees divided by its current market price — the cash income the bond throws off this year, ignoring any gain or loss at redemption.
• Differential Voting RightsEquity shares that carry less than one vote each, letting a company raise capital without diluting control — and letting an investor who does not want the vote buy the same economics at a discount.
• Enterprise ValueWhat it would cost to buy the whole business — market capitalisation plus debt, less cash — as opposed to market capitalisation, which buys only the equity.
• Face valueThe denomination a company's capital is divided into and carried in its books — fixed, printed on the certificate, and the base on which dividend percentages and stock splits are computed.
• Intrinsic valueWhat an asset is actually worth — the present value of the cash it will generate over its remaining life, as against whatever price the market is quoting today.