Wolves and sheep, zombies and lobster traps: A concise dictionary of stock slang

Many people think that financiers and speculators think only about making profits, but in reality this is not the case. Over the many years of the stock and financial markets, a large number of interesting terms have emerged that have formed a true financial language. We decided to make a short dictionary of stock slang.

Sheep sheared and moose cut

One of the most popular tools for describing various events taking place on the market or the players represented on it is the search for analogies with the animal world. Below we consider the basic notation of different investors and speculators.
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Bull - bulls are called traders who buy stocks based on the growth of their value in the future. Bull is the market in which there is a trend of rising prices. Comparison with the bulls appeared due to the fact that during the fight, these animals raise opponents on the horns up.

Bear - the traditional name of a trader who sells stocks in anticipation of the fall in their value. Accordingly, the “bearish” market is the one in which prices tend to decline. Here the analogy is to push the stock indices down by the bear paws.

Wolf - the so-called self-confident successful traders. These people have a strong character and are able to resist panic if the market situation at a particular moment goes against their expectations.

The hare is an investor who commits a large number of transactions over a short period of time. Synonymous with scalper.

Boar is a trader who holds a potentially winning position for a long time and does not take profits on time. As a result, this behavior leads to the fact that the profitable moment for closing a position is missed, as a result, the price changes the direction of movement, and at best the boar "goes" to zero. At worst, he gets an “elk”.

Elk (from the English. Loss - loss) - loss. In the market jargon there is a mass of derivative expressions with "elks": they are grazed, fed, cut, etc.

Lemming - 1) a novice speculator who constantly repeats typical mistakes and does not want to learn; 2) an incorrigible amateur; 3) emotional trader. In nature, lemmings are known for mass movements, during which they sometimes die together.

Sheep is an inexperienced, cowardly player who has no opinion about the prospects of the market. Most often they lose.

The Golden Beetle is an investor, convinced that the most reliable asset is gold. Gold beetles are also called analysts, who constantly give a recommendation to buy gold.

Turkey - an investment that did not meet the expectations of investors. Unsuccessful IPOs or purchase of shares fall into this category, and then they are drastically cheaper.

Killer bees are consultants who, with the help of aggressive strategies, help companies avoid unprofitable takeovers. By their actions, they resemble insects sting the enemy - usually investment banks act as killer bees.

Pigs are greedy-obsessed investors who, in the pursuit of profit, often deviate from their own trading strategy and leave positions open even when all the facts speak of a trend reversal. In addition, PIGS is an acronym for a group of economically weak countries - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. They could be called IGSP or GSIP, but analysts need to find poetic connections even between the letters of the alphabet.

Chicken is an extremely cautious investor, who by all means tries to reduce his risks and chooses the most conservative tools, such as government bonds.

Dead cats and pacman protection

Financial slang is rich in not only “animal” descriptions of people's behavior in the non-market. Traders have also created colorful descriptions to indicate different strategies and situations emerging in the course of trading.

The protection of Pakman is a way to protect against unwanted takeovers, in which the target company begins to acquire shares of its potential buyer on the market and as a result may itself absorb it. The name of the strategy is a reference to the cult computer game of the 1980s: its hero Pakman had to eat the objects scattered through the maze and run away from its other inhabitants.

The alligator spread is a situation in which stock and brokerage commissions “eat up” potential profits from transactions. Usually this expression is used in the option market. The alligator spread can make one or another trading strategy unprofitable.

A butterfly spread is a strategy in which four options are used with the same expiration dates, but with different exercise prices: the first has a high price, the second has a low, and the two remain equal to the arithmetic average between these prices. At the same time, both risk and potential profit are limited.

The rebound of a dead cat is a slight increase in prices after their long fall, which does not signal a break in the trend. At a certain level, for example, a massive closure of short positions may occur, which maintains the price or may even lead to its insignificant growth. The name “dead cat’s rebound” refers to the opinion that even if the result of a fall from a very great height, the cat will bounce off of it anyway.

A lobster trap is a strategy to protect against unwanted absorption. According to her, the company introduces a condition under which large shareholders (with a package of more than 10%) are prohibited from converting any securities into new shares giving the right to vote. Even if it is convertible bonds or stock options. The expression recalls the method of catching lobster, in which large come across, and small ones are eliminated.

Pasta protection is another strategy for a company that wants to avoid moving under the control of a new owner. In this case, the business can place a large amount of bonds, which under the terms of the issue the company must repay at a very high price, if it is still absorbed. The higher the likelihood of this, the more expensive such bonds will be in the market. They swell like pasta when cooking.

To do dirt - to carry out arbitration transactions on various exchanges. Dirt in English - filth. At the same time, this is an abbreviation for the phrase FILTH, Failed in London, Try Hong Kong [did not work in London, try it in Hong Kong].

Zombies - a company that is not able to fulfill its obligations, usually on the verge of bankruptcy, but still present in the market.

Santa Claus rally is a frequently observed increase in securities prices between the Catholic Christmas and the New Year. There are various explanations for this phenomenon: from the festive mood of the exchange players to the attempts of the largest of them to “pull up” the necessary quotes to show higher results of the work of their units for the year and get higher bonuses. We wrote about this phenomenon in this material .

Hoarse is cutting onions

Many of the above terms were created by foreign traders, but Russian stock market participants have enriched financial slang with new interesting words. Here are some of them.

Glass - the queue of applications in the stock exchange terminal, where you can see the location of the orders nearest to the price.

Emery - US NASDAQ Index

Siply, sipi is the S & P agency or the S & P index of the American stock market from this agency.

Shortwing - a situation where, due to significant growth after a fall, traders who have opened short positions (shorts) are forced to close them at the current price that is not profitable for them, which causes even greater growth.

Baba Raya - as RAO UES of Russia was earlier called. At the beginning of the two thousandth years in the conversations of traders, one could often hear phrases like “Push woman Paradise” (sell shares). Today, the term is almost never used.

Onions - Lukoil.

Body - Rostelecom shares.

Representatives of various professions often create a special jargon to communicate with colleagues. At the same time, this kind of argo is most often not called too beautiful or meaningful, but on the financial market this is not the case - in the conversations of traders and investors one can find a lot of original images filled with hidden meanings.

See also : Poetry trading rooms