Many people are intimidated by the business news because they don’t understand the vernacular. Bull? Bear? Ostrich. What does this have to do with money? But there’s good news: Wall Street language isn’t only for business elites with advanced degrees from Ivy League schools. In fact, you may be surprised to find out that most Wall Street lingo is neither sophisticated nor esoteric. Yes, the truth is that investment bankers and brokers typically use words you probably mastered in kindergarten. Let’s take a look at these barnyard words from a financier’s perspective — you’ll be fluent in no time.

A Dog With Fleas

Depending on your movie knowledge, you may remember this classic line in the 1987 movie Wall Street: It’s a dog with fleas, kid. That was how Gordon Gekko described a stock tip from a young, ambitious stockbroker named Bud Foxx. A dog is an underperforming stock or asset. Most Wall Street investors think of dog as a four-letter word, but a few are attracted to the dogs of the market. An investment philosophy called the dogs of the Dow theory advocates purchasing the most beaten-down stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) each year. According to this theory, by purchasing the stocks with the highest dividend yields in the Dow 30, investors can expect returns in the 13% range over a 15-year period. (For more, read Barking Up The Dogs Of The Dow Tree .)

The term bear refers to the given market conditions. Bull and bear are probably the most familiar terms on

Main Street

. Bear markets are rife with pessimism and negative sentiment. Typically, a bear market is one that has experienced declines of at least 15-20% and lasts more than two months. Probably the most famous bear markets occurred in 1929, which some believe caused the Great Depression. Unfortunately, economic indicators in 2008 have drawn comparisons to the Great Depression of 1929. The severe housing and credit bubbles originating in the first decade of the new millennium in the United States burst abruptly in 2007, and this credit unwinding, or deleveraging had a negative ripple effect on economies and markets worldwide. Venerable institutions, such as Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers were wiped out by this bear market. Stock markets across the globe also experienced severe downturns. Governments engineered financial rescue packages for many large banks and insurance giants to avoid global financial markets meltdowns. (For more insight, see Where did the bull and bear market get their names? )

While there is no clear-cut strategy for investors in terms of surviving a bear market, many financial advisors suggest that bear markets occur as part of the normal economic and business cycle. For longer-term investors, these bear markets could be viewed as buying opportunities. Other advisors may recommend selling stocks and raising cash until a clear direction or bottom of the market begins to appear. (To learn more, read Adapt To A Bear Market .)