Tommy checked in today with a provocative email that basically said, “Check out Preqin’s report on high-level SWFs.” Hmmm. That seems a little odd. Why is the financial database that reports on alternative asset classes writing about senior level Single White Females? Are more of them rising to the top of hedge fund management? Are single white females outpacing married white females on the road to the C-suite? It was perplexing so I took a look. Well, technically, I wrote him back asking for the link since he forgot to attach it (although did not forget to send three jazz places he insists I check out next time I’m in NYC. His priorities are always aligned with mine!)
Turns out, SWFs is a TLA (Three Letter Abbreviation) for Sovereign Wealth Funds, not Single White Women, and that (no surprise) these Funds are looking for more alternatives like good old commercial real estate. I guess I’ve been blogging too much!
So this gets me thinking about the dangers of TLAs and how easy it might be to get in some hot water if you misuse one. Even now, TLA is making me remember seeing Joan Jett at the Theater of the Living Arts and not being able to hear the next day during a job interview (a job I strangely enough got!)
SMH stumped me for a while. My neighbor uses it a lot when she’s facebooking about something that’s bothering her (which so far hasn’t been me!). I knew it wasn’t Sharing My Humor, but it took me a while to get to Shaking My Head. (Who even says that anyway?)
And what if I wanted to ask you why you were looking at me with that disapproving expression…you know, Why The Face? Ooops.
In my work world, TLAs and even FLAs are rampant. TIPS, SPDRs, and ETFs are just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a recent convo I had with an advisor:
Advisor: The TPA wants to use an SMA as the QDIA in the DC plan, but the plan prefers a TDF.
Me: What about using the CIT which trades through NSCC and posts the daily NAV?
BDCs are a new one that keeps coming up in conversations, along with MLPs, both of which I forget the minute I remember. They really say nothing about what they are. BDCs are Business Development Companies. Yeah, that’s helpful. MLPs are Master Limited Partnerships and they….uh….I forget. Something about infrastructure and pipelines but I’m not sure.
First cousin to TLAs are malapropisms. I guess the one I can’t live down around the house is when I was taken to the Air and Space Museum outside Washington. Let me get out in front by saying that, despite my frequent travel, there is nothing about air or space that interests me. I took Astronomy in college for a distribution requirement and entertained myself during talk of black holes and white dwarfs by using six different colored pens to draw stars. So, in my mind I wasn’t going to some big aircraft hanger with planes and rockets and what not. I was heading to the Aaron Space Museum, a high brow art museum named after the wealthy philanthropist Mr. Aaron Space — no doubt a Penn alumn too!
Write and tell me your favorite TLAs or malapropism stories!
Leave a Reply