The secret to good investment writing is the same as that to good investment decisions. Don’t follow the herd, shut out market noise, and think for yourself, says Fiona Rintoul.
Are you a good writer? This is a tough question to answer. We recognise good writing when we see it, but it can be hard to define what makes it good. Learning to spot the hallmarks of quality in other people’s writing – concision, variety, authenticity – is an important step towards becoming a good writer yourself.
Fund industry professionals sometimes wonder why they should bother. ‘I want to invest money not write about it,’ a bond fund manager once told me. However, he left my writing skills course happy after I clarified the difference between that and which – which had troubled him all his working life.
That introduces a defining clause, in case you’re wondering, while which introduces an interruption. Here’s how it works:
The fund that I manage is amazing.
Fund A, which John manages, is rubbish and is being wound up.
Engaging writing, not “baggy prose”
Being across stuff like this helps make your writing crisp and precise. The same is true of good punctuation. And crisp, precise writing has a much better chance of engaging readers (aka clients) than baggy prose – especially if your subject is the complex one of investments.
The reasons for this are many. The Economist Style Guide cites one that resonates with me: clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. As an editor, I have often found that woolly prose springs from muddled thinking.
That’s one great reason to be a good writer. Writing well about your fund or strategy shows your thinking is clear. You can then explain the product’s benefits to clients and colleagues.
Good communication is crucial
Communicating clearly is an important part of any business. In the fund industry, it’s crucial. Fund companies have a regulatory and moral duty to ensure their clients understand the risks and rewards of collective investments.
And yet much investment writing is not clear. My colleague David Butcher’s research for the annual Readability Report shows that investment content trends towards the complexity of academic papers and away from the clarity of financial media.
Too often, investment writing is wordy and boring. It bristles with impenetrable jargon and unnecessary initial capital letters. It doesn’t invite the reader in, as good writing should. ‘Go away!’ it screams instead. ‘Leave me alone!’
This is presumably the opposite of what the writer intended. But it is the inevitable result of too many passive constructions, impersonal phrasing and what I can only call bragging.
Our exceptional people. Our unique process. Our outstanding research capabilities. Sound familiar? Writing like this is cold and unconvincing. It leaves readers turning the page or clicking elsewhere. Nonetheless, it is the norm in investment content.
A problem AI can’t fix
How can we fix this? One thing is clear: generative AI doesn’t help.
We’re all becoming familiar with the term ‘AI slop’. Nowhere is AI slop sloppier than in the investment industry. AI is derivative, and so it can only be as good (or worse) than what is already available. It can’t be better; that’s just not possible.
David’s readability research shows that AI-generated investment content is typically much less readable than investment content written by human beings. In fact, he calculates that the complexity premium for AI-generated content is 6.2 percent.
So, what’s the answer? I’ve been providing writing training to fund professionals for over 15 years and I’m convinced the answer is a familiar one.
In those 15 plus years, I’ve learnt that most people in the fund industry are good writers. If you give them a creative writing exercise to try – as I often do – they excel. Because they’re bright people. The problem is that they don’t write well at work.
That’s because they start writing like everyone else in the fund industry as soon as they pick up a pen or tap a keyboard in the office. They succumb to the herd mentality. And so, the secret to good investment writing is the same as that to good investment decisions. Don’t follow the herd. Shut out market noise. Think for yourself.
If you do that, you’ll soon see why the rules of good writing that professional writers follow make sense. George Orwell came up with some great ones. Here’s a sample:
- Never use a long word where a short word will do
- Never use the passive where you can use the active
- Never use a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent
Rules for success
If you’re thigh-deep in the quagmire of complex, wordy writing that dominates investment content, following these rules can feel uncomfortable. But trust me, it’s worth the effort.
Ditching complexity brings clarity of thought, as the good folks at the Economist know. Telling it like it is – explaining your process rather than pretending it’s unique – sets you free. And clear, simple writing builds trust, improving relationships with clients and colleagues.
Give it a go. You can start by swapping long words for short ones. See the difference?
*Fiona Rintoul is a journalist, author and writing trainer. David Butcher is a communications specialist, ‘Readability report’ author, and a judge of the Funds Europe Awards. Together they run Writing Readably, an online writing course for the fund industry. (writing-readably.thinkific.com).
