Fleckisms

Bubbleonians:

Individuals who believe we are in a perpetual bull market. Alternatively called "U4ians."

Bubblevision:

CNBC, Mecca for bubbleonians near and far.

Casino:

Another name for the stock market, at least while the dipsters and bubbleonians are still in force.

Colin and Joanie:

Colin Negrych and Joanie McCullough, very knowledgeable friends who watch the markets closely.

Dead fish:

Also known as cheerleaders. Sell-side analysts whose idea of research is to talk to company management before issuing a "buy" rating (or to downgrade a stock to "sell" after it implodes).

Dipsters:

Individuals who mindlessly buy on dips. See also "Bubbleonians."

Easy Al:

Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. Also known as "Al.com."

Flopping and chopping:

Up-and-down motion that essentially goes nowhere.

Four Horseflies:

Research in Motion, Google, Amazon, and Apple have been anointed "the four horsemen" -- for their purported ability to deliver stocks to the promised land. To express my fat-chance view, I've knocked these four down a bit, from mammal to insect.

Funding Crisis:

The third in the three-baseball-game analogy that I dreamed up last fall as a way to think through all the enormous problems we faced. The first and second games (crises) – financial and economic, respectively – were pretty easy for folks to understand, as they were front and center to the news.

Essentially, the financial crisis now lies behind us (with the economic crisis in full bloom). That, due to all the moves put together by Hank Paulson and other government officials have stopped the vaporization of the financial system and essentially gave everyone a do-over. But therein lay the seeds for the funding crisis, when the dollar is called into question and the Fed's monetization cannot lower rates (but in fact causes them to rise, due to the consequences of money printing), then the Fed is trapped. The more it tries to solve the problem with money printing, the worse it all becomes.

Also, see our readers' definitions of the funding crisis.

Jam job:

When the powers that be force prices absurdly higher in a short space of time.

Kinky stocks:

High-flying tech companies with stratospheric valuations.

Live fish:

Uncorrupted analysts who do their homework. The species is rare, borders on extinction, and is exemplified by Fred Hickey, the king salmon.

LODM:

Lord Of the Dark Matter -- a knowledgeable friend who presciently chronicled the huge problems in the dark matters of finance (aka, the "plumbing") in 2007 and 2008.

Mr. Skin:

A very successful money manager with over 40 years of experience who has is extremely talented at reading the market "tea leaves" (the technical stuff).

People's Momentum Daily:

Investor's Business Daily.

Pinball Alley:

See "Casino."

Ramp job:

See "Jam job."

Shrimp fest:

Any meeting, conference, summit, etc. of policymakers or legislators, during which very little of substance is usually accomplished. G-anything meetings are the classic example. So-called because shrimp is a frequent catering offering at such events, and consuming it seems to be the most important agenda item for attendees.

Spooz:

S&P stock index futures (which trade almost round the clock).

Xera:

The dollar is in need of a name change. I have dubbed it the "xera" -- a combination of: Xerox (for the piece of Xerox paper that it is and the ease with which the Fed can reproduce it), lira (which in the past was one of the world's chronically weak currencies), and most importantly, the fact that "xera" sounds like "zero," which is ultimately where the xera is headed.