ARTICLE - BUSINESS EGLISH - VOCABULARY: A "Bucket list", "Kick the Bucket" - Facebook Stock

VOCABULARY - A "Bucket list", "Kick the Bucket"
BUSINESS ENGLISH - Article concerning Facebook Stock


To understand this cartoon by Cam Cardow of The Ottowa Citizen, you have to know what a 'bucket list' is. A bucket list is a list of things to do before you die. The term comes from the idiom kick the bucket, which is a slang term meaning 'to die'.

In the cartoon we see three old people. Each one tells us something they want to do before they die. The two men want to do things which are very risky: jumping out of a plane, and bungee jumping. The joke is that the woman plans to buy Facebook stock, which can also be seen as very risky, given its fall in value since the company's IPO in May.

BACKGROUND:
Facebook stock hit an all-time low this week when the shares traded at $17.59 mid-day Tuesday, down about 50% from the company's IPO price of $38. The company this week decided not to make a secondary offering, which would have put more shares on the market and likely hurt the price even further. CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he would not sell any of his shares for at least a year.

COMMENT:
Most analysts expect the stock to fall further (see articles below), but buying at $17 is a lot less risky than buying at $38!

http://www.englishblog.com/2012/09/cartoon-bucket-lists.html#.UMs_-qyU5bY