Successful Investors Have Learned to Talk Their Walk!

Today, English is the most widely spoken and writtenThis was at a time when study of anything but
language on the planet. English was first spoken ineconomics was considered unworthy as compared to
Britain by Germanic tribes in the Fifth Century AD. Athard sciences like math, chemistry and physic and
that time it was known as the Old Englishkissing up in the king's court was highly regarded. The
(Anglo-Saxon) period. During the Middle English periodfirst business schools were established in the United
(1150-1500 AD), many Old English word endings wereStates for this reason and still maintain their
replaced by prepositions like by, with, and from. Wedominance. Finance has many words such as "put"
are currently in the Modern English period whichand "call" for which there are no translations in other
started in the Sixteenth Century.languages.
The number of words in English has grown fromIt is critical that you develop your financial vocabulary.
50,000 to 60,000 words in Old English to about aMy understanding of the financial vocabulary is vast
million today; the largest of all languages by far. Ancompared to the average person because of my
average educated person knows about 20,000Ph.D. that I hold in the field as well as my investing
words and uses only about 2,000 words in a week.experience as a futures and options trader and long
Despite its widespread use, there are only about 350term stock investor.
million people who use it as their mother tongue.Many years of study at the doctoral level combined
It is the official language of the Olympics. More thanwith direct practice in investments has allowed me to
half of the world's technical and scientific periodicalsdevelop a vast financial vocabulary. This allows me to
as well three quarters of the world's mail, and itscapture the essence of investment readings and
telexes and cables are in English. About 80% of theconversations that the average person does not
information stored in the world's computers (like thisunderstand. Many investors fail not for lack of
text) are also in English. English is transmitted to moreintelligence (I am of average intelligence) but lack of
than 100 million people everyday by 5 of the largestcomprehension of what makes the stock market
broadcasting companies (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC).tick. This is due, in great part, to a lack of vocabulary
It seems like English will remain the most widely usedthat the common man on the street has not
language for some time.developed. Take the time to develop your financial
The field of finance was pioneered by the Unitedvocabulary and you will excel over time as an
States of America as an extension of mercantilism.investor!