Practice English Vocabulary Exercises – Vocabulary for Banking and Finance: Investments

Make a profit and make a difference

The Aware Finance Ethical Investment Fund aims to offer everything you would expect from an ethical investment: capital growth, a competitive yield and the knowledge that your gain isn’t at the expense of the environment or exploited workers. Naturally, we only invest in companies that have been thoroughly screened, and fully match up to ethical investment criteria.

Yet Aware Finance goes one step further. 20% of the fund is invested in small, unquoted companies developing the next generation of renewable energy technologies. Of course, most of these technologies are in their infancies, and this fund is particularly aimed at investors looking for long-term growth potential. With Aware, the return on your investment isn’t just financial.

The Neptune Tracker Fund

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best. With The Neptune Tracker Fund there are no investment strategies and no fund managers to pay. The fund is invested in the 100 companies that comprise the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100 Share Index. If the FTSE 100 goes up by 5%, the value of your holding goes up 5%. It’s as simple as that.

Despite the promises of high growth and high return associated with managed funds, the truth is that in seven out of the last ten years on average tracker funds have equalled or out-performed managed funds.

And unlike managed funds, there are no hefty fees to pay. Entry to the fund costs 1.75% of the sum invested, with a tiny 0.5% administration fee payable each year thereafter. Yields can be reinvested in the fund or can be taken as income – the choice is yours.

A. Find words in the advertisements which mean the same as the words below.

1   a specific investment    h……………….

2   as good, in financial terms, as others on the market    c……………….

3   checked    s……………….

4   give a higher return than    o………………. -p……………….

5   income from an investment    y……………….

6   increase in value of a holding    c………………. g……………….

7   an increase in value over several years    l……………….-t………………. g……………….

8   not listed on a stock exchange    u……………….

9   principles for deciding how to invest   i………………. c……………….

B. Answer the questions.

1   Which fund is probably higher risk?      AWARE / NEPTUNE

2   which fund is likely to have higher fees?      AWARE / NEPTUNE

3   Which fund is more suitable for investors needing a reliable yield?     AWARE / NEPTUNE

4   Which fund is entirely invested on the stock market?     AWARE / NEPTUNE

5   Which fund would you prefer to invest in?      AWARE / NEPTUNE

C. Match the term with the definition.

D. Put the words in the spaces in the sentences.

blue chip          closing price          commission          commodities

downturn          financial adviser          fixed-interest          flotation

issue price          portfolio          public company          put some money into

share certificates          speculate

1   I’ve decided to …………………… stocks and shares.

2   I bought a five-year …………………… government bond.

3   Unfortunately for investors, there has been a significant …………………… in the market

4   When I bought the bond, I didn’t realise that the agent who sold it to me would get a 3% ……………………

5   To get advice on personal investments, you can see an independent ……………………

6   Shell, British Airways, Sony and Nestlé are …………………… companies.

7   Coffee, cotton, coal and aluminium are ……………………

8   A …………………… is owned by its shareholders, and its share price is quoted on a stock exchange.

9   Shares in Western Gas were launched with an …………………… of 50p per share.

10   The …………………… of Western Gas on the stock exchange was in 1990.

11   Yesterday’s …………………… for Western Gas was 178p per share, down 2p on the day before.

12   Jason has a …………………… of shares worth about half-a-million pounds.

13   Unfortunately, all Jason’s …………………… were destroyed in a fire.

14   Investing is a form of gambling. As the saying goes “You have to …………………… to accumulate”.