Investors coin slogans like Trump acronyms
NEW YORK—Four months into President Donald Trump’s second term, market observers have taken a cue from his fondness for condensing slogans into catchy acronyms like MAGA, DOGE and MAHA—and devised a few of their own that have been spreading across trading desks.
Even acronyms that do not directly reflect a specific trading strategy still serve to reflect factors that are important in Trump-era markets such as volatility and uncertainty—which investors need to consider before making decisions.
Some of the new labels are associated with investment strategies aimed at capitalizing on Trump’s policies, while other labels—not all of them flattering to Trump—riff on economic implications of his abrupt policy U-turns.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said when reached for comment that these “these asinine acronyms convey how unserious analysts have consistently beclowned themselves by mocking President Trump and his agenda.”
Here are some acronyms that have gotten play in the investment world in recent weeks:
TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) – This one coined by a “Financial Times” columnist has been used to describe Trump’s to-and-fro on tariffs. The President lashed out when asked about TACO in a recent press conference, calling the question “nasty.”
MEGA (Make Europe Great Again) – Mega was coined last year to address European competitiveness and the flurry of investor interest in European markets. MEGA hats—spoofing Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) theme—are easily purchased online. The hats have been revived by investors and traders following the outperformance of European stocks in the aftermath of “Liberation Day,” Trump’s April 2 tariffs bombshell.
MAGA (Make America Go Away) – This variation first appeared in response to Vice President JD Vance’s controversial visit to Greenland, the autonomous territory of Denmark which Trump wants annexed to the US. At least one Canadian investor says that quip is making the rounds of trading desks in Toronto and Montreal and sparking “wishful thinking” about simply boycotting US investments.
FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out) – Although the acronym also came into being well before Trump’s inauguration, it is being heard with increasing frequency in trading desk conversations and is used to capture the market’s volatility due to Trump’s policies.
‘Real-time’ policymaking
The so-called “Trump Trade” that played on the MAGA theme after his November election victory and January inauguration may have contributed to record highs on Wall Street in February, but is hardly discussed now that stocks, the dollar and Treasury bonds have succumbed to tariff worries.
“I think he wants to rebalance the economy without pushing it off a cliff. And we’re watching that being executed in real time,” said Christian DiClementi, fixed income portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein.
“I think some of the ideas are thought out and some of them change on the fly.”
