From TACO to FAFO, investors love parodies of Trump acronyms

Free Malaysia Today

31-05-2025

US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January after winning the November elections. (AP pic)
NEW YORK : Four months into US 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 those acronyms that do not directly reflect a specific trading strategy, still capture factors that traders say are important in Trump-era markets, such as volatility and uncertainty, that investors need to consider when making decisions.
Some of the new labels are associated with investment strategies that aimed to capitalise on Trump's economic and trade policies, and international relations goals.
Others riff off economic implications or his abrupt U-turns as markets and trade partners react to his proposals.
The 'Trump trade' that played on the Make America Great Again theme in the wake of his November election victory and January inauguration, and contributed to record highs on Wall Street in February, is hardly discussed now that stocks, the dollar and treasury bonds have succumbed to worries about his tariff polices.
'Post the election, we heard a lot about YOLO (You Only Live Once), which seemed to promote taking outsize risks in a concentrated investment theme,' Art Hogan, strategist at B Riley Wealth, said.
YOLO, is an acronym used to describe the tendency that was part of that Trump trade to chase high momentum strategies such as cryptocurrency. 'While the term YOLO was popular for a period of time, it goes against all traditional advice,' Hogan said.
Here are a few more 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 as a way to describe Trump's to-ing and fro-ing on tariffs in the wake of his April 2 'Liberation Day' speech.
When asked about TACO in a recent press conference, the president lashed out, calling the question 'nasty'.
'Where we end up might not be too far from what he promised on the campaign trail. So, does he always chicken out? I wouldn't go as far as to say that,' said Christian DiClementi, fixed income portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein.
'I think that he wants to rebalance the economy without pushing it off a cliff. And we're watching that being executed in real time. I think some of the ideas are thought out and some of them change on the fly.'
MEGA (Make Europe Great Again)
MEGA, first coined last year to address European competitiveness, resurfaced this spring as a way to describe the flurry of investor interest in and flows into European markets.
MEGA hats, spoofing their MAGA counterparts, are easily purchased online It's been revived by investors and traders in light of the outperformance European stocks in the immediate aftermath of Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs bombshell.
MAGA (Make America Go Away)
While the original Trump trade was also known as the MAGA trade, this variation cribbed the president's motto, first appearing in response to vice-president JD Vance's brief and unfruitful visit to Greenland, the autonomous territory of Denmark, which Trump has expressed interest in annexing.
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 (F*** 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.
It is used to capture the financial market's volatility and chaos that Trump's policymaking process has created.
Mark Spindel, chief investment officer of Potomac River Capital LLC, described the market as being caught in a 'pinball machine as a result of that policymaking process'.
When reached for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email 'these asinine acronyms convey how unserious analysts have consistently beclowned themselves by mocking president Trump and his agenda that've already delivered multiple expectation-beating jobs and inflation reports, trillions in investment commitments, a historic UK trade agreement, and rising consumer confidence.'