Finance terms from the week of Monday, August 17, 2026
30 clues and answers from Tuesday, August 18, 2026 to Sunday, August 23, 2026, each with a
plain-language definition where the term is one worth knowing. These
puzzles are no longer playable; today's game is on the
play page and the last seven days are in the
practice archive.
2 What five letter acronym represents the group of major emerging national economies that expanded in January 2024 to include new members like Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates?
Answer: BRICS(5 letters)
3 What specific five letter word refers to a legal entity that holds no active business operations or significant assets but is often used in complex corporate restructurings or to facilitate acquisitions?
Answer: SHELL(5 letters)
4 Which legendary investor and co chairman of Berkshire Hathaway passed away in late 2023 at the age of 99 leaving behind a legacy as the primary architect of the firm's value investing philosophy?
Answer: MUNGER(6 letters)
5 This venture capital term describes a privately held startup company with a post money valuation of at least one billion dollars. Though once rare the number of these entities surged during the low interest rate era of 2020 and 2021 leading to concerns about inflated valuations and unsustainable cash burn rates.
Answer: UNICORN(7 letters)
A privately held startup valued at more than one billion dollars.
1 The billionaire activist investor who recently pushed for major strategic changes at several large U.S. corporations.
Answer: ICAHN(5 letters)
2 Which major technology company announced in 2024 that it would spend 10 billion dollars to build a massive new data center complex in Indiana to support its growing generative artificial intelligence workloads?
Answer: GOOGLE(6 letters)
3 What specific 19th century economic school led by Adam Smith and David Ricardo argued that markets are self regulating and that free trade leads to the most efficient allocation of resources?
Answer: ROARING(7 letters)
4 What European packaging company is the subject of a 4.7 billion dollar leveraged loan package initiated by banks in March 2026 to finance its acquisition by Clayton Dubilier and Rice?
Answer: SEALED(6 letters)
5 What is the term for a market condition where the futures price of a commodity is higher than the spot price, implying a downward-sloping forward curve?
Answer: CONTANGO(8 letters)
A futures market where contracts for later delivery trade above nearer ones, so the curve slopes upward.
1 The new Federal Reserve chair, who took over in 2026, rejected the word "pause" to describe the July 28-29 hold and has repeatedly called the three dissents at that meeting a "family fight". What is this chair's surname?
Answer: WARSH(5 letters)
2 With the yen near 159 per dollar this week, traders still cite the joint Japan-US operation that sold dollars to buy yen after a 40-year low. What is the one-word term for such official action in the currency market?
Answer: INTERVENTION(12 letters)
Official buying or selling of a currency by a government or central bank to influence its exchange rate.
3 On August 17 this Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant agreed to sell its videogame business for at least $1.5 billion, continuing the disposal of non-core assets; name the seller.
Answer: ALIBABA(7 letters)
4 In acquisition accounting, this intangible asset is recorded for the excess of the purchase price over the fair value of the identifiable net assets acquired, is never amortised under US GAAP, and must instead be tested for impairment at least annually.
Answer: GOODWILL(8 letters)
The premium an acquirer pays for a business above the fair value of its identifiable net assets, recorded as an intangible asset.
5 Borrowed from a becalmed equatorial sea zone, this word describes the late-August stretch when desks are half-staffed, volumes thin out and prices drift, conditions that can turn a small order into an outsized move.
Answer: DOLDRUMS(8 letters)
The late-summer stretch when trading desks are thinly staffed, volumes fall, and prices drift.
1 Risk appetite soured in mid-August after President Trump said he would not try to revive a stalled truce with this Gulf state, whose war has left gasoline about a dollar a gallon dearer; fresh violence in Lebanon added to escalation fears. Name the country.
Answer: IRAN(4 letters)
2 US data on Aug. 14 showed consumer spending unexpectedly fell and July payrolls shrank, yet the Fed insists its focus is fighting price pressures. What single word describes an economy with stalling growth and stubbornly rising prices at the same time?
Answer: STAGFLATION(11 letters)
The combination of stagnant growth, high unemployment and high inflation at the same time.
3 The Arkansas-based chain that is the world's largest retailer by revenue reported results for the quarter ended July 31 this week, the marquee read on US shoppers as sticky prices and costlier gasoline squeeze discretionary spending. Name it.
Answer: WALMART(7 letters)
4 In fixed income, this measure gives the weighted-average time to receive a bond's cash flows and is used to estimate the approximate percentage price change for a one-percentage-point move in yields. What is the term?
Answer: DURATION(8 letters)
A bond's price sensitivity to interest rates, expressed in years. A duration of 7 implies roughly a 7% price fall if yields rise one percentage point.
5 As Q2 reporting wraps up in August, companies exit the restricted stretch before results when insiders and the firm itself may not deal in its shares, reopening more than $1 trillion of authorized repurchase capacity. What is that closed period called?
Answer: BLACKOUT(8 letters)
Saturday, August 22, 2026
1 Central bankers and economists gathered in the Teton mountains this week for the Kansas City Fed's annual late-August symposium, a gathering traders comb for policy signals. Name the sparsely populated US state that hosts it.
Answer: WYOMING(7 letters)
2 Three weeks after the July 28-29 FOMC gathering, the Fed released the detailed written account of who argued what, including the dissenters' reasoning. What is this regularly published record of a policy meeting called?
Answer: MINUTES(7 letters)
The detailed account of an FOMC meeting, published three weeks after the decision.
3 This Minneapolis-based big-box chain with a red bullseye logo posted second-quarter results in the mid-August retail reporting run, a closely watched read on US discretionary spending. Name the retailer.
Answer: TARGET(6 letters)
4 In bond mathematics, this second-order measure captures the curvature of the price-yield relationship: how a bond's own interest-rate sensitivity changes as yields move, explaining why prices rise more on a rate fall than they drop on an equal rate rise.
Answer: CONVEXITY(9 letters)
The curvature in a bond's price-yield relationship - how much its duration itself changes as yields move.
5 As second-quarter reporting wraps up in late August, investors care less about the quarter just closed than about management's own forecast for revenue and profit ahead; trimming it can sink a stock that beat estimates. What is this forward outlook called?
Answer: GUIDANCE(8 letters)
A company's own forecast of its future results, issued alongside reported figures.
1 This Seattle-based online retail and cloud computing giant closed above a $3 trillion market value for the first time in mid-August, joining the tiny club of companies at that scale. Name the company.
Answer: AMAZON(6 letters)
2 Oil fell more than 2% this week, with the North Sea-linked global benchmark futures contract settling near $87 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate ended around $81. Name that international benchmark grade.
Answer: BRENT(5 letters)
The North Sea crude benchmark used to price much of the world's internationally traded oil.
3 The Hollywood superagent and Endeavor co-founder whose new vehicle, Mari, agreed on Aug 15 to buy Broadway and West End theatre operator ATG Entertainment for about $6 billion from Providence Equity. Give his surname.
Answer: EMANUEL(7 letters)
4 In accounting, this basis of measurement records revenue when it is earned and expenses when they are incurred, regardless of when cash actually changes hands, and it underpins both IFRS and US GAAP reporting. What is it called?
Answer: ACCRUAL(7 letters)
Recognising revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash moves.
5 Each late August the Kansas City Fed gathers central bankers, academics and finance officials at Jackson Hole for a three-day policy meeting whose formal title is not a conference or a summit but this scholarly-sounding word. What is it?
Answer: SYMPOSIUM(9 letters)
The Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, hosted each August by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.