50 Phrases to Run From

There’s a peculiar patois in which the financial charlatan speaks. Below, we collect some of the tropes and tricks of the unhinged market rhetorician.

Full disclosure: If you search my site or past commentary, you will probably find instances of me using some of these terms or words. It’s a little unavoidable to not parrot some of the stuff I consume, even if inadvertently. So I guess what I’m trying to say is to be wary of anyone using this stuff daily or deliberately. Because the majority of these terms and phrases are being employed in an effort to distract you from your long-term investment goals or to talk you out of what is likely a sound course of action.

Charlatan catchphrases and red flags

1. Sunlight is the best disinfectant
2. What the market doesn’t understand is…
3. As you know…
4. Inflection point
5. There is a fundamental misunderstanding…
6. “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
7. “Textbook”
8. The mother of all ____
9. 1987
10. Price discovery
11. Picking up nickels in front of a steam roller
12. Euphoria
13. Party Like It’s ____
14. “Druck says”
15. The smart money
16. Punishing savers
17. It’s safe to assume…
18. Next leg higher (lower)
19. To be clear
20. the greenback
21. Hyperbolic
22. TINA
23. Window-dressing
24. “Hussy”
25. Generational
26. Retracement
27. Sucker’s rally
28. Running on fumes
29. Dr. Copper
30. In yen terms
31. Extreme readings
32. Holding the bag
33. Simultaneously calling for a crash and a melt-up
34. Fiat currency
35. Asset price inflation
36. Rigged
37. Detached from reality
38. Manipulation
39. I’m just early
40. I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends
41. Idiosyncratic risk
42. “Spoos”
43. Unless this time is different…
44. “Flashing”
45. Day of reckoning
46. Pivot
47. Bullish or bearish “of” instead of “on”
48. Adopting a Shakespearean affectation while (whilst?) speaking
49. anything Sun-Tzu
50. Lehman.

And of course, if we missed any good ones, tell us on the twitters!