Debt to capital. Indicates the percentage that debt comprises of total capital; calculated by dividing each underlying fund holding's total debt by total capital. A large debt/capital ratio indicates that a company is highly leveraged.

Debt Securities. A general term for any security representing money loaned that must be repaid to the lender at a future date. Bonds, notes, bills and money market instruments are debt securities, but they vary in maturities.

Diversification. The strategy of investing in different asset classes and among the securities of many issuers in an attempt to lower overall investment risk.

Dividend. An income distribution to shareholders that generally comes from the net income of the fund. A change in the dividend rate or amount does not affect the fund's share price.

Dollar Cost Averaging. An investment strategy based on investing equal amounts in a fund at regular intervals. Because more shares are bought when prices are low and fewer shares when prices are high, the average cost of your shares may be lower than the average price over the period you bought them. Dollar cost averaging cannot guarantee a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.

Duration. A measure of the sensitivity of bond and bond mutual fund prices to interest rate movements. For example, if a bond has a duration of two years, its price would fall about 2% when interest rates rose one percentage point. On the other hand, the bond's price would rise by about 2% when interest rates fell by one percentage point.