Intelligent agent technologies hold great promise for the financial services and investment industries such as portfolio management. In financial investment, a multi-agent system approach is natural because of the multiplicity of information sources and the diffierent expertise that must be brought to bear to produce a good recommendation (such as a stock buy or sell decision). The agents in a multi-agent system need to coordinate, cooperate or communicate with each other to solve a complex problem. However, ontologies are a key component in how diffierent agents in a multi-agent system can communicate effectively, and how the knowledge of agents can develop. This paper presents a case study in building an ontology in financial investment. The lessons we learned from the construction process are discussed. Based on our ontology development experience and the current development of ontologies, a framework of next generation ontology construction tools, which is aimed to facilitate the ontology construction, is proposed.