CURRENT ACCOUNT: Like many others who have the thoroughly exciting job of reading brokers' reports on public companies, Current Account has long been irritated at analysts' inability to write in plain English.

While analysts have no problem using the word "buy", especially for client company shares, they will twist the language this way and that to get around using the word "sell".

Now we hear that Morgan Stanley has introduced a new rating system for shares. In comes "underweight", "equalweight" and "overweight" instead of the far more simple buy, hold and sell tags.

"We think the jargon of buy and sell is misleading," Morgan Stanley's head of global research Dennis Shea is quoted as saying in a justification of the broker's change of tack.

"Buy" and "sell" misleading. Pull the other one, Dennis.