By Scott Ronalds

The latest acronym in the investment world smells a little funny. The STINC countries (Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile) are meant to represent export-oriented nations that have shown good fiscal restraint and infrastructure investment over the last several years. Financial writer Jon Markman recently coined the term as a group of countries that represent promising investment opportunities, in contrast to the debt troubled PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain).

While the industry’s marketing machines love a good acronym, I’m not sure they’ll be able to do much with this new geographic hodgepodge. Although I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if a STINC-based ETF hits the market in the coming weeks. There’s a clever play on words in there somewhere.