The U.S. elections, the Fed’s policy shift, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and decreasing inflation have all dominated the headlines in 2024, while also moving markets. Through it all, Investopedia’s millions of monthly readers kept searching for ways to understand these dynamics, and how they affected our portfolios.

Here are Investopedia’s top terms of 2024:

Inflation

Inflation has been the dominant narrative over the past four years, and influenced everything from how consumers spent their money, to the way they voted in November. Many Americans declared that the economy was their top issue, and inflation was their underlying concern when they cast their ballots. While the inflation rate slowed from 3.1% in January of 2024 to 2.6% in October of this year, persistently higher prices weighed on consumer sentiment throughout the year, even as the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since 2020.

Tariffs

As President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign picked up steam last summer, investors and voters knew that raising tariffs on the United States’ main trading partners, Mexico, Canada and China, would be a centerpiece of his agenda once elected. That has proven to be true, and prompted millions of our users to read up on tariffs and their inflationary impacts, as well as historical implementation of tariffs and their efficacy. Expect tariffs to be on this list again next year. 

Nvidia

While it’s rare to have a company name at the top of the terms list, Nvidia (NVDA) proved to be much more than just another chipmaker that found its sweet-spot in the right market at the right time. In 2024, Nvidia became the second largest publicly traded company in the world (behind Apple) with a market capitalization of $3.5 trillion as of this writing. The company was founded over 30 years ago by Jensen Huang, who has himself become a celebrity CEO. The Santa Clara-based semiconductor manufacturer dominates the chipmaking industry in gaming, cryptocurrency mining, and artificial intelligence processing for the largest companies in the world, and has doubled its revenue for the past several years given the insatiable demand for all things A.I. Its quarterly earnings reports move markets, and it has rewarded shareholders handsomely this year, up 167% so far.

Stock Split

Nvidia’s 10-1 stock split in June (among other companies who made the same move in 2024) had this term on our readers’ minds. The stock split made the popular and widely-held stock a lot cheaper for investors who were wary of Nvidia’s high price tag and couldn’t access fractional shares. By broadening its shareholder base, splitting improved the chipmaker’s chances of being included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) at some point in the future. But Nvidia wasn’t the only popular splitter this year—Walmart, Chipotle, and Broadcom were among 477 companies in 2024 that issued stock splits or reverse stock splits.

National Debt

While neither of the presidential candidates seemed eager to discuss the ever-rising U.S. national debt on the campaign trail, the $36 trillion weight around the country’s balance sheet threatens to cripple the government’s ability to pay for social services. Investopedia’s readers wanted to talk about it though, as campaign promises from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both pointed to even more government spending and another massive spike in the nation’s debt. The government bond market has been paying attention to it as well, as treasury yields have remained persistently high given doubts from many debt holders that the U.S. will continue to be a fiscally safe country to invest in over the next few years.

Homeowners Insurance

Homeowners from Florida to North Carolina had to reckon with the fact that their home insurance did not cover every possible scenario that natural disasters bring with them, even though their premiums have been steadily rising over the past several years. Insurers in some states like Florida decided that insuring homeowners was not a good business to be in anymore, and abandoned the state. As climate disasters like floods, fires, tornados, and hurricanes become more frequent and more extreme, the economics around homeowners insurance are heading for a breaking point, and our readers wanted to learn more about how to protect their homes.

Student Loan Forgiveness

The Biden Administration had big plans for student loan forgiveness, in an effort to alleviate the financial burden for tens of millions of borrowers, especially those earning lower incomes. However, those ambitions were thwarted by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals last summer, which struck down the SAVE plan introduced in 2023. Despite the setback, President Biden did push through several other small-scale student loan forgiveness programs in 2024 that relieved millions of borrowers from their payments. President-elect Trump and Linda McMahon, his nominee for Secretary of Education, have already promised to roll those back once they take office in January, leaving a total student loan burden of $1.8 trillion, and tens millions of borrowers with many more questions than answers.

High Yield Savings Account

In 2024 there was still money in the bank, as financial institutions tried to keep and lure customers in with high-yield savings accounts (HYSA) that offered yields of more than 5.5%. Our readers sensed those days would be coming to an end as the Federal Reserve began lowering interest rates in September of this year, and they were right. That didn’t stop millions of them searching across our website for the best-rated HYSAs so that they could continue making money on their money. 

Bitcoin’s Price History

Reader interest follows prices, and Bitcoin’s price has never been more popular than it has this year. The approval and issuance of spot Bitcoin ETFs at the end of 2023 paved the way for yet another historic year for Bitcoin and its price as more retail investors gained exposure to the cryptocurrency. But the presidential elections in November took Bitcoin to a whole new level as President-elect Trump’s campaign included promises that the U.S. would be the “crypto capital of the world,” the Treasury would mine its own Bitcoin, and the government would HODL its stash of over 200,000 Bitcoin forever. Since Nov 6, 2024, the price of Bitcoin has risen over 35%, nearly breaking through $100,000.

Moneyline Bet

The worlds of sports betting and stock and options trading have always been cousins, but 2024 was the year that lines became even blurrier, especially around the elections. Betting on the outcome of the elections isn’t new either, but in the fall of 2024 many of our readers and many market participants either actively bet on the outcome of the election or learned how to bet moneylines and parlays as they watched the odds shift on a daily basis as the election approached. 

Honorable Mentions

American Dream

The American Dream—our 2023 Term of the Year—was still very popular this year, especially since it was used throughout the presidential campaign by both parties who were either trying to revive the possibility of what it represents, or remind us that it is no longer a reality. Our team ran the numbers this year too, and put a price tag on what a reasonable “dream” would cost you today: $4.4 million.

Sahm Rule Recession Indicator

Labor economist Claudia Sahm insists she did not coin the Sahm Indicator named after her. But her principle, which suggests that a three-month rise in the unemployment rate usually triggers a recession, became one of the most widely watched and discussed topics across financial media this year. The Sahm Indicator was actually triggered in the fall of 2024, but a recession didn’t come—at least not yet.

Backdoor Roth IRA

A backdoor Roth IRA, a strategy which allows higher income earners nearing retirement to contribute to a tax-free Roth IRA, is always popular among our readers, but it got even more attention in 2024 as the potential expiration of the 2017 tax cuts loomed large. 2024 also ushered in “Peak 65”, the year more Americans celebrated that birthday than ever, and many were seeking effective ways to pad their retirement portfolios while they were still working.