SPEAK THE SPEECH, I PRAY YOU
The Words Of Finance And Investment Made Clear
WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD FINANCE AND INVESTMENT DICTIONARY, by Barbara J. Etzel. Webster’s New World, an imprint of Wiley, NY 2003. 369 pp, paper. To order click here.
Trying to capture the oft changing language of finance and investment is like trying to catch a humming bird in flight. And yet, amazingly, Barbara Etzel has done just that.
The trouble is that the world of finance is as wingy and jargon laden as the world of hip-hop music, constantly seeking fresh ways to say old things. Each hip trader or broker is constantly trying to find a more exciting way to say the same old-same old, such as fear premium, spam, irrational exuberance, and optiputer.
But Wall Street slang is not what this dictionary is about. The dictionary is about taking more than 3,500 terms used in finance and investment and defining them. The remarkable thing is the simplicity and clarity with which each term is defined. Barbara Etzel is particularly qualified. An MBA and financial reporter, she was a senior editor for Investment Dealer’s Digest, and has covered economics and financial markets for Oster Dow Jones Commodity News, Reuters PLX , and Dow Jones.
Each definition is a gem of clarity. Take, for an example chosen at random, non-statutory stock option. A type of employee stock option. A non-statutory stock option program is easier to set up and administer than an incentive stock option, however, taxes must be paid on the non-qualified stock options, while taxes do not have to be paid on incentive stock options. Also called non-qualified stock options.
Or, gross lease. A property lease in which the landlord pays all of the expenses associated with owning property, or all of the expenses up too a certain amount. These expenses typically include insurance, taxes, repairs, and utility expenses. A gross lease is commonly used with short-term leases.
You may be a financial expert or a real estate lawyer, but you’d be hard put to define these terms more clearly.
The book is up to date. Included are William Donaldson, who is the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission, and the very important Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
An optiputer, by the way, is a new style of supercomputer that derives its name from combining optical networking, Internet protocols, computer storage, and processing. The optiputer consists of about 500 processors linked through fiber optical switching systems. Parts of the computer can share information at the speed of light.
The Webster’s New World Finance and Investment Dictionary is a truly remarkable and comprehensive work. No matter how sophisticated you are in the field, your copy will be well worn within a week.