UK newspaper The Times asked people in Brighton what they understood by the following terms: hedge fund, derivative, sub-prime market, short selling, fiscal stimulus, arbitrage and quantitative easing.
The answers are brilliant, and here are my favourites:
Hedge fund
"Money collected to keep the hedges going?"
Derivative
"This sounds like the kind of word that someone good with
vocabulary would use to try and belittle someone else. It's saying, 'Look at me, I'm so educated.' I'm sure it means something simple and I
bet they could come up with an easier word for it."
Sub-prime market
"It's a type of mortgage but there are so many different types of
mortgages and to tell you the truth, I've never had a mortgage, so I
don't know about these things."
"Like Subway, the sandwich shop?"
Fiscal stimulus
"Physical stimulus? I was going to say something rude.
But it must be something that gets you thinking, something that gets
your brain into gear."
"Fishcake? You can ask me all you want about fishcakes. I understand fishcakes."
Arbitrage
"I think there was a band in the States called Arbitrage…"
"It sounds French to me - a new type of blancmange perhaps?"
Quantitative easing
"I haven't a clue, but can I tell you about my pension?"
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
