# Much used financial jargon words



## dewdrop (3 Aug 2012)

I am amused how every few weeks some new word is used by most financial commentators.  At the moment "conditionality" seems to hog the financial airwaves.


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## micmclo (3 Aug 2012)

"in this current economic climate"

Used by people haggling in shops, used by people moaning on Joe Duffy, used everytime there is a high quote, used by housewives having a chat in the aisle of Tesco

It's everywhere!


What I want to know is what happened "soft landing"


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## Betsy Og (3 Aug 2012)

"Basis points" & "precentage points"

Going by wikipedia a precentage point is 1%, so the difference between 20% and 30% is 10 percentage points, a basis point is one hundredth of a percent, so 0.01%, so if the ECB base rate went from 3.5% to 3.25% it has changed 25 basis points.

The were very in vogue when we were obsessing about "bond yields" - I nearly get queasy at the mention of the phrase.

Anyway I think percentage points and basis points have been used interchangeably by commentators (must watch it more closely now that I've clarified it for myself), so I usually have to do a "sanity check" to see what would make sense.

There's another one "sanity check" - used by people who work on spreadsheets and in technical areas when asking a colleague to briefly review something - for fear one might have made a complete hash of it (a la the Dept of Finance!)


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## bazermc (3 Aug 2012)

micmclo said:


> What I want to know is what happened "soft landing"


 
There wasnt one, there was a great big crash!


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## bazermc (3 Aug 2012)

What I want to know is why is the country so expert now on financial terms when we don't have any money.  When we did have money we didnt know a tracker mortgage from a tracker bar!


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## Brendan Burgess (3 Aug 2012)

Betsy Og said:


> "Basis points" & "precentage points"



I heard an RTE commentator saying that AIB had raised the Standard Variable Rate by 500 basis points. 

I have to admit though, that I have to translate basis points into percentage points.  If someone says that rates increased by 50 basis points, I think "Is that half a percent?"


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## Knuttell (4 Aug 2012)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I heard an RTE commentator saying that AIB had raised the Standard Variable Rate by 500 basis points.
> 
> I have to admit though, that I have to translate basis points into percentage points.  If someone says that rates increased by 50 basis points, I think "Is that half a percent?"



I just don't get it,its as easy to say 1/4% or 1/2% as 50 basis points indeed the former trips easier off the tongue,I think it has more to do with sounding like you are some kinda finance boy wonder,speak as you find and stop talking in riddles.

I am talking in particular to RTE radio/TV journos and the those working for the once fine paper the Irish Independent.


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## Sunny (4 Aug 2012)

It's easier to use basis points in finance because there is less room for confusion. If you say rates rise by 1/2%, is that a relative or absolute value? 

Guess this doesn't really matter when reporting because people would know what is meant but it's a simple enough financial/mathematical term. I don't really have problems with people outside finance using it.


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## Knuttell (4 Aug 2012)

Sunny said:


> If you say rates rise by 1/2%, is that a relative or absolute value?


No idea what you're talking about.


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## roker (5 Aug 2012)

That's gobbledygook to me. As a person with Engineering training and not financial, could you explain base points, and % APR vs. % interest?


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## dewdrop (6 Aug 2012)

I think if you consider one basis point is 1/100th of 1 per cent it is easier to understand.  When dealing with vast sums of money any slight movement in rates is better expressed in this manner.  Anyway that is my view.  Incidentally i see the plural is sometimes referred to a bips.


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## demoivre (7 Aug 2012)

Basis points or percentage points are terms what we should use when referring to interest rate changes to avoid confusion. If rates are 4% and we are told the there has been a 0.5% increase then that actually means that the new rate is 4.02% even though most people take a 0.5% increase to mean mean that the new rate is 4.5%. The correct way to describe the interest rate increasing from 4 % to 4.5% is to say that rates have risen by 50 basis points or they have risen by a half a percentage point.


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## Knuttell (7 Aug 2012)

Thats interesting lads didn't know that,learn something new every day!


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## Guest105 (8 Aug 2012)

I wondered for ages what Quantitative Easing was now when I hear those words in the news  I wonder how many more billions will the Central Bank inject into a forever ailing economy.


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## DerKaiser (8 Aug 2012)

cashier said:


> I wonder how many more billions will the Central Bank inject into a forever ailing economy.



That's the big bazooka for you!


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## Guest105 (8 Aug 2012)

what is a bazooka?


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## bazermc (9 Aug 2012)

cashier said:


> what is a bazooka?


 
its a Weapon!


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## Sunny (9 Aug 2012)

DerKaiser said:


> That's the big bazooka for you!


 
Or a game changer.


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## huskerdu (12 Aug 2012)

cashier said:


> what is a bazooka?



In my day, it was a brand of bubble gum


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## callybags (15 Aug 2012)

cashier said:


> what is a bazooka?


 
They have environmentally friendly ones now.

They produce "green shoots".



Where's my coat?


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## ninsaga (15 Aug 2012)

huskerdu said:


> In my day, it was a brand of bubble gum



Bazooka Joe's I believe


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## dewdrop (17 Aug 2012)

Now that the time for more cutbacks in forthcoming Budget and also from Local Authorities no doubt there will be a resurgence in the use of the phrase "picking the low hanging fruit" .  I think it is all well picked by now


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## DerKaiser (6 Sep 2012)

cashier said:


> what is a bazooka?



http://www.independent.ie/business/...cbs-latest-big-bazooka-bond-plan-3222083.html

You heard it here first!


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## DerKaiser (21 Dec 2012)

Update:
Fiscal Cliff is phrase of the month!


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## Latrade (21 Dec 2012)

DerKaiser said:


> Update:
> Fiscal Cliff is phrase of the month!


 
Fiscal Cliff was my porn name in another life. True dat.


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## dewdrop (22 Dec 2012)

What will follow "fiscal cliff" after 1st January?


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## Guest105 (24 Dec 2012)

dewdrop said:


> What will follow "fiscal cliff" after 1st January?


 
I just don't like that phase at all, "fiscal cliff" I can't help thinking that the world's finances are going to go cascading down the side of a big rocky cliff


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## dewdrop (1 Jan 2013)

Just heard that instead of the fiscal cliff the U.S. will be on the precipice for the next ten years and that annoying phrase of "kicking the can down the road" has reappeared again.  Happy new year.


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