“I wish I understood what those guys are talking about”…or how ShortonCashflow’s glossary was born

As you know, Mike has joined us on ShortonCashflow and, as I was reading his posts, I was struck by how ignorant I was! My posts usually give a hands-on insight in our real estate investments but I must admit I don’t know much about any other investment. I had been thinking for a while that it would be interesting to understand how the stock market works and what mechanisms explain the economical and financial chaos the world is currently going through but I hadn’t really taken any steps forward until last month: I was reading Fred and Mike’s new post and realized that I had to become a little more savvy or I would end up being completely disconnected from my own blog. I also figured that I couldn’t possibly be the only reader of that blog feeling lost: maybe some of you don’t understand everything Fred and Mike talk about either. And that’s why we ended up with a glossary section. I am really excited with this project because, as a linguist, I am going to be able to put my real ability to use here (not just to talk about what unsuccessful investors we are!) and also I’ll get to learn a lot about economy and finances in the process.

I have already posted several glossary entries and many more are on their way. My goal is to eventually define every technical word used in our posts. Fred and Mike will give me a hand to make sure that the definitions I build are accurate and you can also participate by leaving comments directly in the glossary posts.

I calculated there are 5 technical terms (on average) in every post on ShortonCashflow. In the process of explaining and defining each of those terms, I’ll come up with another 4 or 5 terms. Therefore, every post would turn into 20-25 new terms. Since we currently have around 70 posts in our blog, there are already 1400 potential glossary entries to deal with: a lot of work in the offing!

I am currently working on some 30 terms in the field of stocks (it takes some time!). I did a lot of research last weekend and started writing definitions: it was really gratifying to get to finally understand something well enough to explain it to others. So I hope you enjoy this glossary and it helps you get a better grasp at the technical notions it covers.