When to use it: Any time you are asked to explain why the market (or a stock) is down after a strong run.

Why it’s smart-sounding: It sounds like you know what professional traders are doing, which makes you sound smart and plugged-in. It sounds like common sense: Traders have made a lot of money–now they’re “taking profits.” It doesn’t commit you to a specific recommendation or prediction. If the stock or market goes down again tomorrow, you can still have been right about the “profit taking.” If the stock or market goes up tomorrow, you can explain that that traders are now “bargain hunting” (see next smart-sounding meaningless phrase).

Why it’s meaningless: Traders buy and sell stocks for dozens of reasons. And for every seller, at any time, there is a buyer on the other side of the trade. Whether or not the seller is “taking a profit”–and you have no way of knowing–the buyer is at the same time placing a new bet on the stock. So collectively describing market activity as “profit taking” is ridiculous. Any trade, at any time, in any market, can be described as “taking a profit” or “cutting a loss” or “bargain hunting” or “filling out a position,” and so on. You have no way of knowing what’s actually going on, and there’s always someone on the other side of every trade. But no one will ever prove you wrong!

When to use it: Anytime.

Why it’s smart-sounding: It sounds deeply profound–the sort of wisdom that can only be achieved through decades of hard work and experience. It suggests the speaker understands the market in a way that the average schmo doesn’t. It suggests that the speaker, who gets that the stock market is actually a “market of stocks,” will coin money while the average schmo loses his or her shirt.

Why it’s meaningless: Because it’s a statement of the obvious. Of course it’s “a market of stocks.” But it’s also a “stock market.” And viewing the stock market as a “market of stocks” doesn’t help you in any way, other than reminding you that all stocks don’t move up and down the same amount.

Another classic. Sounds smart, but is completely meaningless.

When to use it: Especially useful in bear markets or flat markets, but can be used anytime.

Why it’s smart-sounding: It suggests that the current market environment is different from other market environments and therefore requires special skill to navigate. It implies that the speaker has this skill. It suggests that, if you’re talented enough to be “a stockpicker,” you can coin money right now–while everyone else drifts sideways or loses their shirts.

Why it’s meaningless: If you pick stocks for a living (or for your personal account), all markets are “stockpickers’ markets.” In all markets, traders are trying to buy winners and sell dogs, and in all markets only half of these traders succeed. (It’s a different half each time, of course–and most of the “winnings” of the winners are wiped out by transaction costs and taxes, but that’s a different story). It is no easier (or harder) to win the stockpicking game in a flat or bear market than in a bull market, and if you try, you’ll almost certainly do worse than if you had just bought an index fund.