By Scott Ronalds

Investors have learned to deal with a lot of anxiety over the last couple of years, what with a severe credit crisis, major bank failures, derivatives gone bad and gyrating stock markets. Indeed, stress is becoming the new buzz word.

Below are some stress-related observations and musings on the week that was.

Stress tests: European banks were recently subject to a health check in the form of stress tests that were designed to determine how well they would cope with another recession or financial shock. While only 7 of 91 banks failed, analysts were still stressed this week over the credibility and level of difficulty of the tests.

Stressed leadership: BP (British Petroleum) was so stressed about their heavily-criticized CEO’s (Tony Hayward) inability to effectively deal with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that they replaced him with Robert Dudley, the company’s first non-British head.

De-stressing: Tom Bradley was on holiday in Ontario’s cottage country for two weeks of R&R. His de-stressing technique: twice daily short-line slalom sessions (waterskiing) at 34 mph. Whatever works for you, boss. I think I’ll stick to something less strenuous, fishing and Heineken.

STRESS nations: With a new acronym hitting the investment dictionary, STINC (Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile), we’ve come up with our own group of high risk, strained economies that may represent attractive investment opportunities for the gamblers out there. We call them the STRESS nations – Syria, Turkmenistan, Rwanda, El Salvador and Somalia. Look for an offering on the ETF product shelf soon.

Stressed wireless: Discount wireless carriers are stressing over Rogers Communications’ launch this week of chatr, its new low-cost brand that targets the unlimited talk and text market.

Salary stress: Canucks forward Mason Raymond and Oilers forward Gilbert Brule were so stressed out about their salary arbitration hearings that they both accepted offers from their clubs before proceedings were set to start.

We could all use a little less stress this summer. Serenity now.