referencebooks

Webster's New World Finance and Investment Dictionary: Your guide to the terms, phrases, and jargon of the financial world

By Barbara J. Etzel.

Published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003.

This is a 6" by 9" paperback running to 369 pages, including a section of chart (graph) shapes commonly found in financial communication.

This is simply a dictionary of terminology used in the world of finance and investment. The introduction makes the case for having a new one such as this, based on the fact that the last few years have seen new terminology entering the financial world as a result of growing complexity of financial instruments, new developments in accounting, legislation (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) and other changes.

Most definitions in the book are two or three sentences in length, though some go on for several paragraphs. They are written clearly, mostly in layman's language, and are sufficient to communicate a general idea of what the term means, sometimes without getting into the real nitty-gritty details. As an example, here is the definition of "oversubscribed":

oversubscribed   A term used in underwriting to describe a new stock or bond that has more buyers than available shares. If an offering is oversubscribed, its price will often shoot up once it begins trading on the market. By using a green shoe provision, which allows the underwriter to sell more shares, the underwriter can modestly increase the number of shares offered.

For an idea of what's in the book, here are the first fifteen entries in the "F" sequence:

• fabless
  
• face value
  
• face-amount certificate
  
• factoring
  
• factory orders report
  
• fair value
  
• fairness opinion
  
• fallen angel
  
• family of funds
  
• Fannie Mae
  
• FASB (See Financial Accounting Standards Board)
  
• fast market
  
• Fastow, Andrew S.
  
• fast-track trading authority
  
• FCF (See free cash flow)
  

Not showing up in this list are the many foreign financial terms which have become important in the global financial industry. A strength of the book is its inclusion of many Islamic, Japanese and other foreign terms, as well as the names for the currencies of most countries.

This is a useful book for business people, business and finance students, and anyone getting a bit deeper in to the world of finance in their own lives.