Before the financial crisis, the investment community used to use words like "conservative" and "value" to describe the financial services sector, which includes the big banks and insurance companies. I think it is now appropriate that words such as "volatile", "speculative" and "casino-like" be used in financial service sector mutual fund and ETF prospectuses.
Fortunately, I've never been really interested in the financial services sector due to the fact that I'm more of a younger and growth oriented investor. I feel sorry for all of the yield chasing conservative investors who included companies like Manulife in their portfolio thinking it was a stable long term "conservative" investment.
Below is the chart of a company whose sector is often described as "volatile" or "speculative".
