Lingo every investor should know

Most investors know IRA means Individual Retirement Account, not Irish Republican Army, and "rollover" isn't a dog command but something you might do to a CD, by which we don't mean a format for recorded music.

Beyond that, however, many investors, particularly new ones, are likely to feel acronymically challenged. "There are so many acronyms in our business now," says Brian Rimel, vice president for investments at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. "It's an alphabet soup of confusion."

Now that many Americans are taking another look at the stock market, these pesky three- and four-letter bits of shorthand may be heard more often. So FYI, here are the ABCs of acronyms you may hear on CNBC or from other sources.