Glossaries for investment and economic jargon
What can you do if you want to purge jargon from your vocabulary, but you don’t know how to explain investment and economic jargon in plain language? Glossaries can help.
Online glossaries of investment and economic terms
Here are some online options:
- Finimize Glossary—I like the conversational tone of the Finimize entries, but its entries include some grammar mistakes. Proofread carefully before you quote a Finimize explanation.
- Glossaries from major financial institutions—for example, J.P. Morgan Glossary of Investment Management Terms or Nasdaq Glossary of Stock Market Terms
- The Economist‘s Economics A-Z terms (free registration required)
- Glossary of Economics and Personal Finance Terms from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
- Investing in Bonds
- Investopedia
- InvestorWords
- Morningstar Glossary
- Wikipedia—I know Wikipedia doesn’t focus on investments or finance, but it has some helpful explanations. The quality of entries may vary in this crowdsourced resource.
Another option is to search in Google, as I explain in “Resources to help you cut through investment jargon.”
A printed glossary
If you prefer to use a printed book, the Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms from Barron’s is a classic.
How to use glossary explanations
I suggest that you read the glossaries’ explanations, and then explain the relevant concepts in your own words.
If you copy a glossary’s explanation, please credit the glossary.
If you’re publishing something online, consider linking to an online definition. This is especially useful if only a small number of your target readers won’t understand the term. I wrote about this in “Help your readers by linking to definitions.”
Disclosure: If you click on an Amazon link in this post and then buy something, I will receive a small commission. I link only to books in which I find some value for my blog’s readers.
