About the Bo Derek, J-Lo and Angelina Indices

If you visit the finance dictionary at Investopedia.com you’ll be visiting the most comprehensive financial dictionary online or off, I’m told. Indeed, it seems to have been the main motivation behind Forbes Inc.’s purchase of the website in April of 2007: “We were very impressed with their financial dictionary of 5,300 terms,” Steve Forbes said back then.

According to the list of top-10 most searched terms, EBITDA is No. 1, followed by CAGR, P/E ratio, and Bo Derek …. What? Wait a minute, Bo Derek? What’s she doing in a financial dictionary? Could it be a blooper? Well, I just had to click on the link to see how Investopedia.com’s dictionary was going to define that one.

Here’s how it goes: “A slang term used to describe a perfect stock or investment. In the 1979 hit movie ‘10’, actress Bo Derek portrayed the ‘perfect woman,’ or ‘the perfect 10.’ This term was used more often in the early 1980s, after the movie ‘10’ first came out.”

Well, what do you know: it’s not a blooper but a real financial term (albeit slang). I did not know that (cue Johnny Carson expression and voice tone). But wait, there’s more.

In the “Related Terms” section, we also have:

Angelina Jolie Index
Harry Potter Stock Index
Paris Hilton Stock Index
Eva Longoria Stock Index
Lindsay Lohan Stock Index
Jennifer Lopez - J. Lo
Leading Lipstick Indicator

The first five refer to stocks that may benefit from association with the celebrity, e.g. the publisher of the Harry Potter books or the movie studio that produces Angelina Jolie’s movies. A “Jennifer Lopez” is slang for “a rounding bottom” pattern sometimes seen in price charts by technical analysts and the lipstick indicator is a signal of consumer sentiment based on the observed tendency for lipstick sales to vary inversely with economic conditions. Check out the site for more details, if you like.

Comments

[notsosmart:]

and that about describes the financial markets & the world in general.

2008 Jul 30 10:08 AM