Investopedia ( Essential Business Tools )

I don't know about you, but I find dictionaries fascinating. When I look up a word, there's always another word nearby that's just as interesting or more so. That leads to another word! And soon I'm paging through the dictionary from one section to another. Like eating chocolates you just can't stop with one (chocolate or word).

Oddly enough the same is true of dictionaries of business and finance. I mean, just what is short selling? It's been in the news with respect to Fannie Mae. Like all trades, vocations, professions, business and finance has its own unique language. It's a code that if you are going to survive you need to break. To paraphrase Ghostbusters, who or what are you going to call to break these codes? That's where Investopedia comes in.

Founded in 1999 by Cory Wagner and Cory Janssen, Investopedia became a Forbes Digital Company in April 2007. With Forbes behind Investopedia it is an essential business and financial tool, the most extensive financial dictionary available. While our focus here is on the dictionary, Investopedia is encyclopedic in scope covering all aspects of investing.

Investopedia features a searchable index as well as 11 separate dictionaries of terms grouped by specialized subsections including acronyms, buzzwords, bonds, stocks, foreign exchange, mutual funds, options and futures, retirement, trading, technical analysis, and taxes. ( Click on highlighted words for lists of terms and definitions. ) And, yes, you will find definitions for "short selling or positions" in the "stocks" section. Try to check any of these lists out without compulsively going from one term to another! This is nearly impossible! As above "like chocolate".

Under acronyms you'll find out what "apy" is; under buzzwords, what "back up the truck"means; under mutual funds, what "exchange privilege" means; under taxes, what
"gas guzzler tax" means; and so on. There are thousands of terms, each clearly defined. Want to know more. Each term refers to related terms. And on Investopedia there are extensive followup articles and tutorials, a veritable university of investing. Here's the link to tutorials on "short selling" Short sellers are investors who are betting a stock will fall in price but that's just the "short" of it. The lesson is in the link.

You will find Investopedia an essential business tool. It is free and we've just scratched the service in this post. Looking for books on investing, check out Investing For Dummies by Eric Tyson and Investing Online For Dummies by Kathleen Sindell. For dictionaries of finance see Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms by John Downes and Dictionary of Financial Terms by Virginia B. Morris. All these books are available at the Berkshire Athenaeum or your local library.

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