If you MUST use "secular" in your investment commentary…

…please follow The Wall Street Journal‘s example. Define secular the first time you use it. 

Here’s how Mark Gangloff did it in “TALF and Ilk Won’t Cure Economic Ills” in The Wall Street Journal: “Instead, credit has dried up this time because of the more secular—meaning structural or long-lasting—phenomenon of a debt bubble.”

Secular is great shorthand for conversations between investment professionals. But it may confuse investors who think of secular as the opposite of religious.” After all, see what comes up when you Google “define: secular.”

 

 

Note: Gangloff’s article appeared on March 5, 2009, but his approach still works. I updated this on Nov. 21, 2022.