Following on from Monday’s post on Parmesan as collateral, I came across this excellent article which gives some crystal clear explanations of common financial jargon currently being bandied about.

The article on Marketplace quotes US District Judge Katherine Forrest who, during the recent Fabrice Tourre securities fraud trial, told lawyers to “have a heart” and not to use jargon during the proceedings. The article contains a mini-glossary of key trading terms, as well as three very well presented short videos on asset-backed bonds, naked short selling, and credit default swaps.

Highly recommended.

You might also like these posts about jargon: ‘Business-ese’ may be worse than legalese; sovereign debt restructuring; and Translating through the fog.