Financial markets in popular culture and Financial markets slang

Only negative stories about financial markets tend to make the news. The general perception, for those not involved in the world of financial markets is of a place full of crooks and con artists. Big stories like the Enron scandal serve to enhance this view.
Stories that make the headlines involve the incompetent, the lucky and the downright skillful. The Barings scandal is a classic story of incompetence mixed with greed leading to dire consequences. Another story of note is that of Black Wednesday, when sterling came under attack from hedge fund speculators. This led to major problems for the United Kingdom and had a serious impact on its course in Europe. A commonly recurring event is the stock market bubble, whereby market prices rise to dizzying heights in a so called exaggerated bull market. This is not a new phenomenon; indeed the story of Tulip mania in the Netherlands in the 17th century illustrates an early recorded example.
Financial markets are merely tools. Like all tools they have both beneficial and harmful uses. Overall, financial markets are used by honest people. Otherwise, people would turn away from them en masse. As in other walks of life, the financial markets have their fair share of rogue elements.

[edit] Financial markets slang
Big swinging dick, a highly successful financial markets trader. The term was made popular in the book Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis
Geek, a Quant
Grim, an ageless man known for his whistle and tendency to relate current events to financial market[citation needed]
Nerd, a Quant
Quant, a quantitative analyst skilled in the black arts of PhD level (and above) mathematics and statistical methods
Rocket scientist, a financial consultant at the zenith of mathematical and computer programming skill. They are able to invent derivatives of frightening complexity and construct sophisticated pricing models. They generally handle the most advanced computing techniques adopted by the financial markets since the early 1980s. Typically, they are physicists and engineers by training; rocket scientists do not necessarily build rockets for a living.
White Knight, a friendly party in a takeover bid. Used to describe a party that buys the shares of an organization to help prevent the takeover of that organization by another party (that is making a hostile bid).