A focused vocabulary exercise for ESL learners working in or with the finance industry. These expressions appear regularly in banking communications, financial reports, and industry publications.
📚 Key vocabulary hedge fund — a pooled investment fund using advanced strategies, typically available only to institutional or accredited investors underwriting — the process of evaluating and assuming financial risk for a fee, used in loans, insurance, and securities amortization schedule — a table showing periodic loan payments broken down by principal and interest over the life of the loan letter of credit — a bank document guaranteeing a buyer's payment to a seller, used frequently in international trade default — the failure to meet the legal obligations of a loan, such as missing scheduled payments fiduciary — a person or institution with a legal obligation to act in another party's best financial interest money market — a financial market for short-term, low-risk debt instruments and highly liquid securities yield — the earnings generated on an investment, expressed as a percentage of its cost or current market value repo rate — the interest rate at which a central bank lends money to commercial banks on a short-term basis non-performing loan (NPL) — a loan on which the borrower has not made scheduled payments for a specified period, usually 90 days
READY TO PRACTICE? LET’S GO!
Choose the correct response to complete each sentence.
1. Asset ___________________ involves dividing an investment portfolio among different asset categories, such as stocks, bonds, and cash.
Correct answer: allocation.
2. In banking terms, someone's portfolio is a collection of their ___________________.
Correct answer: investments.
3. ___________________ investor is more likely to risk losing money in order to get better results.
Correct answer: An aggressive.
4. What's the opposite of an aggressive investor?
Correct answer: A conservative investor.
5. ___________________ the stock market can be risky, but it often yields higher returns than other investments.
Correct answer: Playing.
6. Proponents of diversification believe that you shouldn't put all your eggs ___________________.
Correct answer: in one basket.
7. A mutual fund is a form of ____________________ investment that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, and other securities.
Correct answer: collective.
8. A commodity, such as crude oil, sugar, or gold, can be readily ____________________.
Correct answer: traded.
9. Whenever I __________________ (meaning: notice) a trend, I let my clients know about it.
Correct answer: spot.
10. What are the __________________ risks associated with this approach?