cover image Money Talk: From Alphabet Stock to Naked Sale - Words and Phrases That Control Your Money

Money Talk: From Alphabet Stock to Naked Sale - Words and Phrases That Control Your Money

Lorraine Spurge. Hyperion Books, $12.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-7868-8498-8

Lorraine Spurge (Money Clips) rose through the ranks of Wall Street from secretary to legend (she's credited with raising more money for American businesses than any other woman), so she knows that even the most modest investor can learn to speak and read finance-ese with a little help. In Money Talk: From Alphabet Stock to the Naked Sale--The Words and Phrases That Control Your Money, she clearly and engagingly defines familiar terms (blue chips, debit card and intestate) as well as more arcane ones, including such antitakeover tactics as ""the Pac Man defense"" and the ""poison pill,"" and a ""tangerine"" (""a company with the potential to be separated into juicy segments"").