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It’s Robert Armstrong’s world, and we’re just living in it. Borg:
President Donald Trump bristled at suggestions that Wall Street believes he’s ultimately unwilling to follow through on extreme tariff threats, saying his repeated retreats are instead part of a strategy to exert trade concessions.
“It’s called negotiation,” Trump said on Wednesday, adding that he intentionally would “set a number at a ridiculous high number” and then “go down a little bit” as part of talks.
Trump was asked during an Oval Office event to respond to reports of a so-called “TACO” trade, in which investors seize on market tumbles after the president makes tariff threats, predicting he will ultimately relent and equities will rebound.
The acronym — which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out — was coined by a Financial Times columnist and has since been adopted by traders attempting to navigate the dozens of changes to tariff policy Trump has announced over the early months of his presidency.
Inspired by Rob’s huge success in minting the coinage, FT Alphaville has tried to get in on the action by coining several of its own Mexican-inspired market adage acronyms.
MOLE
MacroeconomistsOnlyListEvents
QUESADILLA
QuantsUsedExcelSystematicallyAndDon’tIRRLevelsLookAppealing?
POZOLE
PracticallyOnlyZeroOverlookedLongsExist
SALSA
StrangeActorsLeverageSafeAssets
FAJITA
FrequentlyAlphaJustInvolvesTradingArbitrage
TAQUITO
TrumpAlwaysQuicklyUndoesInitialTradeOffensives
NOPALES
NeverOverweightPoundAssetsListenEverythingSucks
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