Investment Acronyms v1.37 - prepared by George Zurakowski  ( http://goldsilverstocks.info )
- commonly used on sites such as Zero Hedge - http://www.zerohedge.com/
ABCP	Asset-backed commercial paper is a form of commercial paper that is collateralised by other financial assets
ABS	Asset-backed security
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 US after losses in subprime derivatives
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 (U.S.)
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 (U.S.)
BOE	Bank of England
BofA	Bank of America
BOJ	Bank of Japan
BRIC	Refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, a rapidly developing group of countries
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 US residential housing market
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 (U.S.)
CBOT	Chicago Board Of Trade - a commodity exchange
CDO	Collateralized debt obligation
CDS	Credit-Default Swap
CEA	Council of Economic Advisers (U.S.)
CFO	Chief Financial Officer
CFR	Council on Foreign Relations, an influential organization with world and corporate leaders as members
CFTC	Commodity Futures Trading Commission (U.S.)
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 U.S. economy
ED	Eurodollar (often a futures contract on EUR/USD exchange rate such as EDZ10)
EFSF	European Financial Stability Fund
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 (U.S.)
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 (U.S.)
FDIC	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (U.S.)
FED	As in "the Fed", means the Federal Reserve
FHA	The Federal Housing Administration (U.S.)
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, for example, here and 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)
FOMC	Federal Open Market Committee (of the Federal Reserve)
FOREX	Foreign Exchange (currencies)
FRBNY	Federal Reserve Bank of New York
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, also ETF: AdvisorShares Cambria Global Tactical ETF (NYSE: GTAA)
GULFO	A currency proposed by Arab states of the Persian Gulf to support a pan-Arab monetary union
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	International Monetary Fund
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)
ISM	Institute for Supply Management (referring to index, usually) - see http://www.ism.ws/about/
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 - http://www.investorwords.com/2797/LIBOR.html
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: http://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
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.)
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 China
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
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 Australia
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	Repurchase agreement - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repurchase_agreement
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 (U.S.)
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 Policy Center (U.S.), a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution
TPTB	The powers that be ( a common expression)
UBS	Union Bank of Switzerland
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