Investment Acronyms v1.44 - prepared by George Zurakowski ( https://goldsilverstocks.info ) |
|
- commonly used on sites such as Zero Hedge - https://www.zerohedge.com/ |
|
ABCP |
Asset-backed commercial paper is a form of commercial paper that is collateralised by other financial assets |
ABS |
|
ADP |
ADP National Employment Report, a measure of employment from about 500,000 U.S. business clients. |
AFP |
Agence France-Presse, a major
newsw agency |
Ag |
Silver |
AIB |
Allied Irish Banks PLC - one of the Big Four commercial banks in Ireland |
AIG |
American International Group, a major
insurer bailed out by the |
AMBAC |
AMBAC is a holding company whose subsidiaries provide financial guaranty insurance |
AMEX |
American Stock Exchange OR also American Express |
ARB (1) |
Asset Recovery Bank created by the Irish Gov't in Sept. 2010 to split Anglo Irish Bank after the financial crisis, see also FB (Funding Bank) |
ARB (2) |
Arbitrage - profiting from market imbalances, typically in stocks and bonds |
ARM |
Adjustable Rate Mortgage |
ARRA |
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 |
Au |
Gold |
AUDJPY |
Value of Australian Dollar verus the Japanese Yen |
AUM |
Assets Under Management ( of a fund or financial institution) |
BAB |
Build America Bonds, part of ARRA, the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009, to try lowering state/local borrowing costs |
BAC |
Symbol for Bank of America Corporation |
Bad Bank |
A state-guaranteed bank holding non-performing (toxic) assets |
Bancor |
A proposed and re-proposed Global Currency, presumably IMF controlled/issued |
BEA |
Bureau of Economic Analysis ( |
BDI |
Baltic Dry Index,
considered by many economists as a good leading indicator for the world
economy |
BFSR |
Bank Financial Strength Rating (Moody's) or Bank Fundamental Strength Rating (S&P) - reflects a bank’s intrinsic financial strength |
BIS |
Bank for International Settlements |
BLS |
Bureau of Labor
Statistics ( |
BOE |
Bank of England |
BofA |
Bank of |
BOJ |
Bank of |
BRIC |
Refers to the countries of |
BTP |
Italian Government Bonds |
Bund(s) |
German Government Bonds, generally considered to
be the benchmark or safest European bonds |
BTC |
Bid
to Cover Ratio |
BTP |
BTP's are Italian Government Bonds |
BTFD |
Buy the Failed, Friggin' or F*^% Dip |
CAPEX |
Capital expenditures
(expenditures creating future benefits) |
Case-Shiller Indices |
S&P/Case-Shiller
Home Price Indices for the |
CB |
Central Bank (like the Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, Bank of Japan, etc) |
CBGA |
Central Bank Gold Agreement (also known as WAG, Washington Agreement on Gold) |
CBO |
Congressional Budget Office ( |
CBOT |
Chicago Board Of Trade - a commodity exchange |
CDO |
|
CDS |
Credit-Default Swap |
CEA |
Council of Economic Advisers ( |
CFO |
Chief Financial Officer |
CFR |
Council on Foreign Relations, an influential organization with world and corporate leaders as members |
CFTC |
Commodity Futures Trading Commission ( |
CIC |
Chinese Sovereign Wealth fund |
CLO |
Collateralized Loan Obligation, a type of CDO or SPV similar to CMO (Collateralized Mortgage Obligation) |
CLSA |
CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets is a research-driven agency broker and financial-services group |
CMA |
CMA Datavision, a source for OTC market pricing data - can be stocks, bonds, commodities, derivatives |
CMBS |
Commercial mortgage-backed securities |
CMBX |
A synthetic tradeable index
referencing a basket of 25 commercial mortgage-backed securities. More here. |
COT |
Commitment of Traders - CFTC report of various participants' holdings (longs, shorts) in futures markets |
CPI |
Consumer Price Index, but see also PPI. BLS
provides a comparison.
See also this Shadowstats article |
CRB |
Commodities Research Bureau |
CUSIP |
Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures - unique 9 character code identifying all financial instruments traded in the U.S. |
DIP |
"Debtor-in-possession" loan,
made to a company entering bankruptcy to allow it to restructure and
operate |
DMM |
Designated Market Maker |
DOL |
U.S. Department of Labor |
ECB |
European Central Bank |
ECRI |
Economic Cycle Research Institute, puts out
good leading indicator data for the |
ED |
Eurodollar (often a futures contract on EUR/USD exchange rate such as EDZ10) |
EFSF |
|
ELA |
Emergency Liquidity Assistance
to illiquid but solvent credit institutions by a European NCB (National
Central Bank) with ECB approval |
EMT |
Efficient Market Theory - an asset's price reflects all available relevant information at the time |
ENRON |
Mostly used now in a derogatory comparison, referring to the ENRON
Scandal |
EPS |
Earnings per share |
ERP |
Equity risk premium |
ES |
S&P 500 stock index (futures) |
ESM |
European Stability Mechanism (ESM) |
ESF |
Exchange Stabilization Fund (U.S.) |
ETF |
Exchange Traded Fund, an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, just like a stock, usually index-based |
EU |
European Union |
EURCHF |
Value of the Euro in terms of Swiss Francs |
EW count |
Elliot-wave count |
FASB |
Financial Accounting Standards Board ( |
FB |
Funding Bank created by the Irish Gov't in Sept. 2010 to which all deposits of Anglo Irish Bank will be transferred, see also "ARB" |
FCIC |
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission ( |
FDIC |
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ( |
FED |
As in "the Fed", means the Federal Reserve |
FHA |
The Federal Housing Administration ( |
FHFA |
Federal Housing Finance Agency (U.S.), the regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the dozen Federal Home Loan Banks |
FICC (1) |
Fixed Income
Clearing Corporation |
FICC (2) |
Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC), for
example, here |
FICO |
A FICO score is a widely used credit score, the acronym for which comes from the originator, the Fair Isaac Corporation |
FINRA |
A U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (but not a Government Agency) |
Fiscal Cliff |
Refers to scheduled U.S. tax increases and
spending cuts that could have negative economic effects -see the Wiki here |
FOMC |
Federal Open Market Committee (of the Federal Reserve) |
FOREX |
Foreign Exchange (currencies) |
FRBNY |
Federal Reserve Bank of |
FRN |
Floating Rate Note or "floater", a variable coupon bond |
FX |
Foreign Exchange |
GAAP |
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles |
GAO |
General Accounting Office, headed by the U.S. Comptroller General |
GCI |
GCI Financial, a securities and commodities trading firm specializing in FOREX |
GDP |
Gross domestic product |
GETCO |
Global Electronic Trading
Company, a privately-held, electronic trading firm and market-maker |
GFC |
Global Financial Crisis (2007 - ?) |
Gini |
Gini scores or coefficients are a measure of the inequality of a distribution and are often used to describe inequality of income or wealth |
GLD |
GLD is the ticker symbol for a Gold ETF, an exchange-traded gold fund named SPDR Gold Trust |
GS |
Goldman Sachs |
GSE |
Government-sponsored enterprises |
GTAA |
Global Tactical Asset Allocation. More here |
GULFO |
A currency proposed by Arab states of the |
HAMP |
Home Affordable Modification Program (U.S.) |
HFT |
High-frequency trading (computerized, algorithmic trading, usually with sub-second holding times) |
HUI |
Symbol of the AMEX Gold BUGS Stock Index |
HY |
High yield, normally referring to bonds |
ICI |
Investment Company Institute - National association of U.S. Funds, ETF's, etc. |
IG |
Investment grade |
IG |
Investment grade, bonds usually |
IMF |
|
IMHO |
In my humble opinion (used in blogs and e-fora) |
INBS |
Irish Nationwide Building Society is an old Irish financial institution, now owned by the state |
IOER |
A term used by the Federal reserve (U.S.). It stands for interest rate on excess reserves. |
IPO |
Initial public offering (equities, stock offering) |
ISDA |
The
International Swaps and Derivatives Association - a somewhat
incestuous group
- see here
for example of the conflict |
ISM |
Institute for Supply Management (referring to index, usually) - see https://www.ismworld.org/ |
JGB |
Japanese Government Bonds |
JPM |
JP Morgan - A global investment bank, financial services entity, etc. |
LBMA |
London Bullion Marketing Association |
LCH |
London Clearing House, now LCH.Clearnet |
LEH |
Ticker Symbol and short form for the now
defunct Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, a casualty
of the 2008 financial crisis |
LIBOR |
London Interbank Offered Rate see - LIBOR |
LSAP |
Large-scale asset purchases (of the Federal Reserve) |
LTCM |
Long Term Capital Management - a major financial fiasco in late 1998 requiring FED intervention |
LTRO |
Longer-term Refinancing Operation (ECB) |
LTV |
Loan-to-value ratio (of a mortgage) |
M1, M2, M3 |
Monetary aggregates, money supply - M1 is narrow, M3 much broader, includes savings accounts, etc. |
MACD |
Moving Average Convergence/Divergence, a technical analysis term which looks at crossing moving averages |
MBIA |
MBIA is an insurer of municipal
bonds, asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed
securities. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBIA |
MBS |
Mortgage-backed securities - see the Wiki |
MERS |
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems - an electronic registry of mortgage loan ownership (U.S.) |
MIP |
Mortgage Insurance Premium (up-front fee charged by FHA) |
MLEC |
Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit - a way of
bailing out financial institutions affected by the sub-prime mess - see
here. |
MLP |
Master Limited Partnership |
MOM |
Month-on-month |
MOPE |
MOPE = management of perspective economics |
MRO |
Main Refinancing Operation (of the ECB) - provides liquidity to the banking system |
MSM |
Main-stream media |
MTM |
Mark-to-market,
fair value accounting |
NAMA |
National Asset Management Agency - created by the Irish Gov't in 2009 to deal with the financial crisis - NAMA will function as a bad bank |
NAFTA |
North American Free Trade Agreement |
NAV |
Net asset value |
NBER |
The National Bureau of Economic Research (U.S.) |
NFP |
Non-farm Payrolls (U.S.) Report put out by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
NOL |
Net operating loss |
NPL |
Non-performing Loan |
OAS |
Option-adjusted spread, also sometimes: Organization of American States |
OCC |
U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, regulates, and supervises all national banks |
OECD |
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development |
OIS |
Overnight Interest Rate Swap - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overnight_indexed_swap |
OMB |
Office of Management and Budget (U.S.) |
OMT |
Outright Monetary Transactions (of the ECB)
purchase of sovereign bonds conditional on fiscal adjustment programme |
OMOs |
Open market operations (of the Federal Reserve or other Central Bank) |
OTC |
Over-the-counter or off-exchange trading |
PBOC |
The People's Bank of |
PIIGS |
Acronym for Portugal, Italy, Itreland, Greece and Spain, whose sovereign debt considered particularly risky (also see PIGS) |
PIGS |
Acronym for Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, whose sovereign debt considered particularly risky (also see PIIGS) |
PIMCO |
A leading global investment management firm |
PM |
Precious Metals |
PMI |
Purchasing Managers Index - see http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pmi.asp |
PMM |
Primary Market Maker |
POMO |
Permanent Open Market Operation
of the Federal Reserve, refers to the purchase or sale of Treasury
securities |
POTUS |
Presidents of the United States
- see POTUS |
PPI |
Producer
Price Index, often moves ahead of CPI |
PROP Desk |
Proprietary trading or PROP desk refers to a brokerage firm trading on its own account |
PSI |
In relation to the Greek 2012 bailout "Private
Sector Initiative" whereby old private bonds are swapped for new bonds |
PT |
Price target |
Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4 |
First quarter, second quarter (of year) |
QE |
Quantitative easing (modern euphemism for currency inflation, printing, creation) |
RBA |
The Reserve Bank of |
REDI |
REDI FX, a Goldman Sachs FX trading platform. Also Goldman's REDIPlus Execution Management System |
REIT |
Real Estate Invesment Trust - a company, trust or other entity which earns its income chiefly by managing/owning real estate |
REO |
Real Estate Owned property that reverts to the bank after an unsuccessful foreclosure auction |
REPO |
|
RICO |
The Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (U.S.)) |
RMB |
Chinese currency (Renminbi or sometimes referred to as Yuan) |
RMU |
Regional Monetary Unit, first proposed in 1997
by/for the East Asian ASEAN countries, modelled rougly on the EU
currency unit |
RRR |
Reserve Requirement Ratio, a cash reserve
requirement applied to banks by Central Banks or Banking Regulatory
Authorities |
S&L |
Savings and Loans Institutions, also U.S. S&L crisis of the late 1980's requiring massive gov't bailout |
SDR |
Special
Drawing Rights, foreign exchange reserve assets allocated to
nations by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) |
SEC |
Securities and Exchange Commission ( |
SHCOMP |
Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index |
SHIBOR |
Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate - SHIBOR |
SIGTARP | The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (U.S.) |
SIV |
Structured Investment Vehicle, popular before the 2008 financial crash as a way of raising "off balance sheet" money. |
SNB |
Swiss National Bank |
SocGen |
Société Générale - a leading European Financial Services Company |
SOMA |
System Open Market Account (of the Federal reserve) |
SPDR |
SPDR Gold Trust is an exchange-traded gold fund with the ticker symbol GLD |
SPE or SPV |
Special Purpose Vehicle (or Entity) - yet
another dubious financial creation of ENRON fame |
SWAP |
A derivative where one type of asset, cash flow, investment, liability or payment is exchanged for another - see here for more info. |
TARP |
Troubled Assets Relief Program (U.S.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program |
TBTF |
Too big to fail |
TIC |
Treasury International Capital, cross-border investment flow data by the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury |
TIPS |
Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (U.S.) |
TPC |
Tax |
TPTB |
The powers that be ( a common expression) |
UBS |
Union Bank of |
USD |
US Dollar |
USDJPY |
Value of the US Dollar in terms of Japanese Yen |
UST |
United States Treasury |
VWAP |
Volume-Weighted Average Price, the ratio of the value traded to total volume traded |
WAG |
Washington Agreement on Gold (also known as CBGA, Central Bank Gold Agreement ) |
WGC |
World Gold Council, an industry association of the world's leading gold mining companies |
WSJ |
The Wall Street Journal |
XAU |
ISO Code for Gold (one ounce) or the Philadelphia Gold and Silver Stock Index |
YOY |
Year-on-year |
YTD |
Year-to-date |
ZIRP |
Zero interest rate policy |