金融英语：英语习语中的动物

英语自学网

　　The finance world famously has almost a language all of its own, ranging
from complex financial jargon to the playful slang of the stock market. What
that means is that within the thicket of terms like VaR, backwardation,contango,
tranche, and junk bond, we find some familiar animal friends — although often in
some strange contexts.
        　　金融世界有一套广为流传的自己的语言，包括复杂的金融术语，以及戏谑的股票市场俏话。而在错综复杂的诸如加值型经销商、现货溢价、期货溢价、一期款项、垃圾债券这类术语中，还有一些我们熟悉的动物伙伴——尽管它们也常出现在奇怪的语境中。
        　　The bulls and the bears
        　　牛和熊
        　　When it comes to the wildlife of Wall Street, two animals should
immediately come to mind: bulls and bears. With the bear standing in for a
downward-trending market and the bull in for an upward-trending one, these two
have stood in opposition to one another since the 18th century.
        　　说道华尔街的野生动物，人们立刻就会想起牛和熊。自18世纪以来，熊就代表着股市下跌，而牛代表着股市上扬。
        　　The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) frames this financial use of bear as
preceding that of bull, suggesting that this use of “bear” probably extends from
the idiom “to sell the bear’s skin before one has caught the bear.” These
bearskin traders then hope for a downturn in the market so that they might make
a larger profit on the transaction.
        　　牛津英语词典认为“熊市”的用法先于“牛市”。它的用法是由谚语“熊未捕到先卖皮”延伸而来的，熊皮贩售商希望借此在市场上价格出现下跌，这样他们就能在交易中牟大利。
        　　On the other end of the market, the emergence of the bull is unclear. Some
suggest that the term was drawn from the practice of bull- and bear-baiting, or
even from the fighting styles of the two animals (a bear swipes down with its
paws where a bull thrusts upwards with its horns).
        　　相对地，“牛市”一词的出现则没有清楚的定义。有人认为该词源于斗熊和斗牛，或者两种动物的打斗风格(熊用爪子向下扫，而牛则用角向上顶)。
        　　So while bear and bull originally referred to the actual speculators, bear
market and bull market came to refer to the market conditions favorable to those
investors, though they did not appear until the late 19th century. Other
derivatives include bear raid – when investors try to profit on the falling
price of a stock, or cause the fall to happen – and bear squeeze – the financial
pressure experienced by bear speculators when the market rises.
        　　因此，两种动物最初指的是实际投机者的行为，在19世纪末才用来形容金融市场状况。其他衍生词包括“熊袭”(疯狂抛售以获利的行为)、以及“熊压”(股市上涨时投机者体会到的金融压力)。
        　　Lame ducks
        　　跛脚鸭
        　　The term lame duck is more commonly associated with politics today. Despite
those present-day political leanings, the term was used earlier in 18th-century
British finance.In the context of the business world the term refers to someone
who has defaulted on debts or entered bankruptcy. Today, the financial use of
the term is considered dated.
        　　“跛脚鸭”现在和政治联系比较紧密。而在18世纪，它是和英国金融联系在一起的。生意场上，“跛脚鸭”指负债或将要破产的投资者。如今这个说法有些过时。
            
            

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        　　Stag
        　　牡鹿
        　　More common in the UK, a stag profit or stagging is when an individual or
group buys into a company’s initial public offering (IPO) or issue of new shares
with the intent of selling right away, hoping to take advantage of the rising
stock price.
        　　这个词在英国更为常见，它指的是停滞利润或停滞状态。当个人或团体买入某公司的首募股，或者买入新股立刻卖出，以期在股票价格上涨中获利。
        　　While the term is of uncertain origin, it seems possible that the term
emerged from the sense of stag as an informant, especially in the phrase to turn
stag. The term may have emerged from this sense of those “stag” traders turning
on the other investors in order to make that quick profit.
        　　该词的起源未知，但很有可能它最开始被指为告密者。由此衍生出“牡鹿”交易者突然行动以获利的行为。
        　　Dead cat bounce
        　　死猫式反弹
        　　An alarming one for pet-lovers out there, a dead cat bounce is stock market
slang for the temporary upswing in stock prices after a sharp fall. The rather
unfortunate and very literal meaning of the phrase is helpfully explained in one
of the OED citations via the Washington Post: “If you throw a dead cat against a
wall at a high rate of speed, it will bounce – but it is still dead.”
        　　猫咪爱好者注意了，死猫式反弹在股市中指某股票剧跌之后的短暂反弹。对这个词汇更生动(也是更残忍)的解释源自华盛顿邮报对牛津英语词典的引用：“当你把一只死猫扔向墙上时，它会反弹一下，但也活不过来了。”
        　　In the stock market, the brief upwards movement of the dead cat bounce is
usually the result of speculators buying at the low prices and then quickly
reselling. The phrase has also come to mean any kind of brief improvement or
artificial success.
        　　股市中，这种情况通常发生在当投机者低价买入并快速抛出时，也用来形容股市快速上涨或股市中人造的成功。
        　　The wolves (of Wall Street)
        　　华尔街之狼
        　　Wolf has been used several times to allude to powerful (and sometimes
criminal) individuals on Wall Street. The most memorable recent “Wolf” is Jordan
Belfort, convicted on charges of stock fraud in connection to his boiler room
penny stock operation and stock market manipulation. Belfort’s crimes and his
lavish lifestyle were depicted in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall
Street.
        　　“狼”通常用来形容华尔街极具权力的个人。近期最名声大作的“狼”莫过于乔丹·贝尔福特，因股票诈骗被起诉。他被控在电话交易所利用低股价操纵股票市场。马丁·斯科塞斯2013年电影《华尔街之狼》就是以贝尔福特的犯罪行为和他奢华的生活为原型的。
        　　While Belfort was the self-proclaimed “wolf of Wall Street,” he was not the
first “wolf” that the finance world had known. Besides Belfort, there was also
the con man David Lamar, convicted on charges of impersonating a member of
Congress in 1913, and the anti-hero of the 1929 film The Wolf of Wall Street,
which starred George Bancroft as a trader who corners the copper market.
        　　贝尔福特自称为“华尔街之狼”，然而他可不是金融界第一头“狼”。除他之外，还有著名的骗子大卫·拉玛尔，1913年被控伪装国会议员。他1929出演了《华尔街之狼》的反面角色，在其中饰演乔治·班克罗夫特，一位独霸铜市场的生意人。