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Digital assets and currencies

Understand assets, networks and trading mechanics with sources you can check.

Trading basics

Trade name

A trade name, also known as a trading name, business name or operating name, is a pseudonym used by companies and other organizations that do not operate under their registered legal name. Registering the trade name with a relevant government body is often required.

Trading basics

Trade promotion (marketing)

In business and marketing, "trade" refers to the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. Trade Promotion refers to marketing activities that are executed in retail between these two partners. Trade Promotion is a marketing technique aimed at increasing demand for products in retail stores based on special pricing, display fixtures, demonstrations, value-added bonuses, no-oblig

Fiat currencies

Trade-weighted US dollar index

The trade-weighted US dollar index, also known as the broad index, was a measure of the value of the United States dollar relative to other world currencies. It was a trade weighted index that improved on the older U.S. Dollar Index by incorporating more currencies and yearly rebalancing. The base index value was 100 in January 2006.

Trading basics

Trademark

A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from others. Trademarks also extend to non-traditional marks like drawings, symbols, 3D shapes like product designs or packaging, sounds, scents, or

Trading basics

Transfer mispricing

Transfer mispricing, also known as transfer pricing manipulation or fraudulent transfer pricing, refers to trade between related parties at prices meant to manipulate markets or to deceive tax authorities. The legality of the process varies between tax jurisdictions; most regard it as a type of fraud or tax evasion.

Trading basics

Transfer pricing

Transfer pricing refers to the rules and methods for pricing transactions within and between enterprises under common ownership or control. Because of the potential for cross-border controlled transactions to distort taxable income, tax authorities in many countries can adjust intragroup transfer prices that differ from what would have been charged by unrelated enterprises dealing at arm

Finance

Treasury (Australia)

The Department of the Treasury, also known as the Treasury, is the national treasury and financial department of the federal government of Australia. The treasury is responsible for executing economic and fiscal policy, market regulation and the delivery of the federal budget with the department overseeing 16 agencies. The Treasury is one of only two departments that have existed contin

Trading basics

Trickle-down fashion

Trickle-down fashion is a model of product adoption in marketing that affects many consumer goods and services.

Finance

Trinomial tree

The trinomial tree is a lattice-based computational model used in financial mathematics to price options on equity. It was developed by Phelim Boyle in 1986. It is an extension of the binomial options pricing model, and is conceptually similar. It can also be shown that the approach is equivalent to the explicit finite difference method for option pricing.

Trading basics

Trusted Shops

Trusted Shops is a company founded in Cologne, Germany, in 1999, which offers online shops and their customers trust-building services by means of a trustmark, a money-back guarantee process and a system of customer reviews. Online retailers are also provided with assistance in meeting legal requirements. Around 25,000 online shops display the trustmark as of July 2019.

Payments & settlement

TSYS

Total System Services, Inc. (TSYS) is an American financial technology company based in Columbus, Georgia, that provides payment processing services, merchant services and related payment services. It also provides reloadable prepaid debit cards and payroll cards, and demand deposit accounts to the underbanked.

Finance

Turbo warrant

A turbo warrant (or callable bull/bear contract) is a kind of stock option. Specifically, it is a barrier option of the down and out type. It is similar to a vanilla contract, but with two additional features: It has a low vega, meaning that the option price is much less affected by the implied volatility of the stock market, and it is highly geared due to the possibility of knockout. Th

Trading basics

Types of e-commerce

There are many types of e-commerce models, based on market segmentation, that can be used to conduct business online. The 6 types of business models that can be used in e-commerce include: Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Consumer-to-Business (C2B), Business-to-Business (B2B), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C), Business-to-Administration (B2A), and Consumer-to-Administration

Trading basics

Ubiquitous commerce

Ubiquitous Commerce also known as U-Commerce, u commerce or uCommerce (not 'U.Commerce'), refers to a variety of goods and/or services. Sometimes, it is used to refer to the wireless, continuous communication and exchange of data and information between and among retailers, customers, and systems (e.g., applications) regardless of location, devices used, or time of day.

Trading basics

UK Asset Resolution

UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) is a British financial services holding company with headquarters in the West Yorkshire village of Crossflatts (near Bradford & Bingley's former headquarters in Bingley). It was established in October 2010 as a bad bank to hold the two run-off elements, Bradford & Bingley (including the Mortgage Express brand) and NRAM plc (previously known as Northern Rock Ass

Trading basics

Underwriting spot

An underwriting spot, also known as sponsor credit, is an announcement made on public broadcasting outlets, especially in the United States, in exchange for funding. These spots usually mention the name of the sponsor, and can resemble traditional television advertisements in commercial broadcasting to a limited extent; however, under the terms of a public broadcaster's license from the

Trading basics

Unilateral policy

Under a unilateral policy (or "colgate policy" or "unilateral minimum retail price policy") a manufacturer, without any agreement with the reseller, announces a minimum resale price and refuses to make further sales to any reseller that sells below the announced price. Unilateral policy is a form of resale price maintenance that enables a manufacturer to influence the price at which its

Trading basics

Unit of account

In economics, unit of account, sometimes called currency unit or monetary unit, is a standard unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a measure of relative worth and a standard of deferred payment, a unit of account is a necessary prerequisite for the formulation of commercial agreements that involve debt.

Finance

United States as a tax haven

In 2010, the United States implemented the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act; the law required financial firms around the world to report accounts held by US citizens to the Internal Revenue Service.

Trading basics

United States Savings Bonds

United States Savings Bonds are debt securities issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to help pay for the U.S. government's borrowing needs. They are considered one of the safest investments because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. The savings bonds are nonmarketable treasury securities issued to the public, which means they c

Securities & exchanges

United States securities regulation

Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal and state-level regulation by governmental regulatory agencies, but sometimes may also encompass listing requirements of exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and rules of self-regulatory organizations

Trading basics

United States Treasury security

United States Treasury securities, also called Treasuries or Treasurys, are government debt instruments issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to finance government spending as a supplement to taxation. Since 2012, the U.S. government debt has been managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, succeeding the Bureau of the Public Debt.

Trading basics

Unsecured debt

In finance, unsecured debt refers to any type of debt or general obligation that is not protected by a guarantor, or collateralized by a lien on specific assets of the borrower in the case of a bankruptcy or liquidation or failure to meet the terms for repayment. Unsecured debts are sometimes called signature debt or personal loans. These differ from secured debt such as a mortgage, whic

Trading basics

USRobotics

U.S. Robotics Corporation, often called USR, is a company that produces USRobotics computer modems and related products. Its initial marketing was aimed at bulletin board systems, where its high-speed HST protocol made FidoNet transfers much faster. During the 1990s it became a major consumer brand with its Sportster line. The company had a reputation for high quality and support for the

Trading basics

Valpak

Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, LLC, commonly known as Valpak, is a North American direct marketing company owned by AmatoMartin. Valpak provides print, mobile and online advertising, customer data and coupons. Valpak mails coupons to 41 million demographically targeted households each month and millions more consumers through its advertising postcards and website every year.

Trading basics

VALS

VALS (Values and Lifestyle Survey) is a proprietary research methodology used for psychographic market segmentation. Market segmentation is designed to guide companies in tailoring their products and services in order to appeal to the people most likely to purchase them.

Finance

Valuation of options

In finance, a price (premium) is paid or received for purchasing or selling options.

Finance

Valuation risk

Valuation risk is the risk that an entity suffers a loss when trading an asset or a liability due to a difference between the accounting value and the price effectively obtained in the trade.

Trading basics

Value (marketing)

Value in marketing, also known as customer-perceived value, is the difference between a prospective customer's evaluation of the benefits and costs of one product when compared with others. Value may also be expressed as a straightforward relationship between perceived benefits and perceived costs: Value = Benefits - Cost.

Finance

Value added

Value added is a term in economics for calculating the difference between market value of a product or service, and the sum value of its constituents. It is relatively expressed by the supply-demand curve for specific units of sale. Value added is distinguished from the accounting term added value which measures only the financial profits earned upon transformational processes for specif

Trading basics

Value at risk

Value at risk (VaR) is a measure of the risk of loss of investment/capital. It estimates how much a set of investments might lose (with a given probability), given normal market conditions, in a set time period such as a day. VaR is typically used by firms and regulators in the financial industry to gauge the amount of assets needed to cover possible losses.

Trading basics

Value-based pricing

Value-based price, also called value-optimized pricing or charging what the market will bear, is a market-driven pricing strategy which sets the price of a good or service according to its perceived or estimated value. The value that a consumer gives to a good or service, can then be defined as their willingness to pay for it (in monetary terms) or the amount of time and resources they w

Trading basics

Values scale

Values scales are psychological inventories used to determine the values that people endorse in their lives. They facilitate the understanding of both work and general values that individuals uphold. In addition, they assess the importance of each value in people's lives and how the individual strives toward fulfillment through work and other life roles, such as parenting. Most scales

Securities & exchanges

Vanna–Volga pricing

The Vanna–Volga method is a mathematical tool used in finance. It is a technique for pricing first-generation exotic options in foreign exchange market (FX) derivatives.

Banking

Variance swap

A variance swap is an over-the-counter financial derivative that allows one to speculate on or hedge risks associated with the magnitude of movement, i.e. volatility, of some underlying product, like an exchange rate, interest rate, or stock index.

Finance

Vendor finance

Vendor finance is a form of lending in which a vendor, instead of a bank or financial institution, lends money to be used by the borrower to buy the vendor's products or property. Vendor finance is usually in the form of deferred loans from, or shares subscribed by, the vendor. The vendor often takes shares in the borrowing company. This category of finance is generally used where the ve

Trading basics

Vendor lock-in

In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock‑in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.

Payments & settlement

Venmo

Venmo is an American mobile payment service founded in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2013. Venmo is aimed at users who wish to split their bills or pay a business. Account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app. Account holders must be residents of the United States. Venmo also operates as a small social network, as users can observe other users' public transactions

Finance

Venture capital in Poland

Venture capital is a segment of the economy of Poland where private equity finances early-stage high-risk companies, with the potential for fast growth. As of March 2019, there is a total of 130 active VC firms in Poland, including local offices of international VC firms, and VC firms with mainly Polish management teams. Between 2009 and 2019, these entities have invested locally in over

Trading basics

Venture debt

Venture debt or venture lending (related: "venture leasing") is a type of debt financing provided to venture-backed companies by specialized banks or non-bank lenders to fund working capital or capital expenses, such as purchasing equipment. Venture debt can complement venture capital and provide value to fast growing companies and their investors. Unlike traditional bank lending, ventur

Payments & settlement

Verifone

Verifone, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City, New York. Verifone provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems to the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare industries. The compa

Trading basics

Verisure

Verisure P.L.C. (formerly known as Securitas Direct) is a security company based in Versoix, close to Geneva in Switzerland and active in 17 countries in Europe and South America and provides security services to 5.7 million families and businesses. Hellman & Friedman is currently the main shareholder in the group but announced plans to take the company public in October 2025.

Trading basics

Vertical integration

In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration, also referred to as vertical consolidation, is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need. It contra

Trading basics

Vertrue

Vertrue Incorporated, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American consumer services marketing company. The company again received an "F" from the Better Business Bureau for making unauthorized charges to its customers' credit cards. In 2007 it was acquired by a trio of investment firms, including Rho Ventures. In 2010, Vertrue and two of its subsidiaries were found guilty of d

Trading basics

Video game monetization

Video game monetization is a type of process that a video game publisher can use to generate revenue from a video game product. The methods of monetization may vary between games, especially when they come from different genres or platforms, but they all serve the same purpose to return money to the game developers, copyright owners, and other stakeholders. As the monetization methods co

Trading basics

Viral marketing

Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product or service on social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another. It can be delivered by word of mouth, or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile

Fiat currencies

Virtual currency law in the United States

United States virtual currency law is financial regulation as applied to transactions in virtual currency in the U.S. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates as commodities. The Securities and Exchange Commission also requires registration of any virtual currency traded in the U.S. if it is classified as a security and of any trading platform that meets its definition of an ex

Trading basics

VitaNova Brands

VitaNova Brands, based in San Antonio, Texas, was an operator of a number of American national buffet chain restaurants including subsidiary company Furr's. The company owned and operated Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, and Ryan's Buffet, along with Curry House.

Finance

Volatility arbitrage

In finance, volatility arbitrage (vol arb) is a term for financial arbitrage techniques directly dependent and based on volatility.

Securities & exchanges

Volatility risk

Volatility risk

Securities & exchanges

Volatility swap

In finance, a volatility swap is a forward contract on the future realised volatility of a given underlying asset. Volatility swaps allow investors to trade the volatility of an asset directly, much as they would trade a price index. Its payoff at expiration is equal to

Trading basics

Volcker Rule

The Volcker Rule is section 619 of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. § 1851). The rule was originally proposed by American economist and former United States Federal Reserve chair Paul Volcker in 2010 to restrict United States banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers. It was not implemented until

Trading basics

Volume risk

Volume risk, also known as quantity risk, is the risk of production or sales volumes materially and adversely deviating from their expected quantities. The term has context-specific applications.

Payments & settlement

Voucher

A voucher is a bond which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be redeemed only for specific reasons or on specific goods.

Trading basics

Wanghong economy

The wanghong economy refers to the Chinese digital economy based on influencer marketing through social media platforms. Wanghong (Chinese: 网红; pinyin: wǎnghóng; lit. 'internet fame') is the Chinese term for internet celebrity. Chinese wanghong celebrities attract the attention of internet users, which can translate into profit through e-commerce and online advertising.

Securities & exchanges

Warby Parker

Warby Parker Inc. is an American eyewear brand and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, headquartered in New York City. It also offers eye exams. Originally founded in 2010 as an online-only retailer, the company now generates most of its revenue from its physical retail stores.

Securities & exchanges

Warrant (finance)

In finance, a warrant is a security that entitles the holder to buy or sell stock, typically the stock of the issuing company, at a fixed price called the strike price.

Payments & settlement

Warrant of payment

In financial transactions, a warrant is a written order by one person that instructs or authorises another person to pay a specified recipient a specific amount of money or supply goods at a specific date. A warrant may or may not be negotiable and may be a bearer instrument that authorises payment to the warrant holder on demand or after a specific date. Governments and businesses may p

Trading basics

Water trading

Water trading is the process of buying and selling water access entitlements, also often called water rights. The terms of the trade can be either permanent or temporary, depending on the legal status of the water rights. Some of the western states of the United States, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Iran and Spain's Canary Islands have water trading schemes. Some consider Australia's

Trading basics

Wealth inequality in the United States

The inequality of wealth (i.e., inequality in the distribution of assets) has substantially increased in the United States since the late 1980s. Wealth commonly includes the values of any homes, automobiles, personal valuables, businesses, savings, and investments, less any associated debts.

Securities & exchanges

Wealth management

Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals and families.

Securities & exchanges

Weather derivative

Weather derivatives are financial instruments that can be used by organizations or individuals as part of a risk management strategy to reduce risk associated with adverse or unexpected weather conditions. Weather derivatives are index-based instruments that usually use observed weather data at a weather station to create an index on which a payout can be based. This index could be total

Fiat currencies

William A. Barnett

William Arnold Barnett (born October 30, 1941) is an American economist, whose current work is in the fields of chaos, bifurcation, and nonlinear dynamics in socioeconomic contexts, econometric modeling of consumption and production, and the study of the aggregation problem and the challenges of measurement in economics.

Trading basics

Wine label

Wine labels are important sources of information for consumers since they tell the type and origin of the wine. The label is often the only resource a buyer has for evaluating the wine before purchasing it. Certain information is ordinarily included in the wine label, such as the country of origin, quality, type of wine, alcoholic degree, producer, bottler, or importer. In addition to th

Fiat currencies

Wise (company)

Wise, formerly known as TransferWise, is a British financial technology company focused on global money transfers and Business Finance. Headquartered in London, it was founded by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011. As of 2023, it offers three main products: Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform.

Trading basics

Women in cooperatives

A cooperative ("co-op") is an autonomous, people-centred organization grounded in democratic governance and social equity that can serve as a vehicle for women's economic empowerment and inclusion. Cooperatives are based on 6 core values; self-help, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. The cooperative model includes non-profit community organizations and businesses that are owne

Trading basics

Word-of-mouth marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM, WOM marketing, also called word-of-mouth advertising) is the communication between consumers about a product, service, or company in which the sources are considered independent of direct commercial influence that has been actively influenced or encouraged as a marketing effort (e.g. 'seeding' a message in a network rewarding regular consumers to engage in

Trading basics

WorldRemit

WorldRemit is a digital cross border remittance business that provides international money transfer and remittance services in more than 130 countries and over 70 currencies. It was founded in 2010 by Ismail Ahmed, Catherine Wines, and Richard Igoe. It is owned by Zepz, which also owns Sendwave.

Trading basics

X tax

The X Tax is an approach to taxation conceived by Princeton University economist and New York University School of Law professor David F. Bradford, It consists of two taxes:

Securities & exchanges

XVA

In mathematical finance, X-Value Adjustment (XVA, xVA) is an umbrella term referring to a number of different "valuation adjustments" that banks must make when assessing the value of derivative contracts that they have entered into. The purpose of these is twofold: primarily to hedge for possible losses due to other parties' failures to pay amounts due on the derivative contracts; but al

Securities & exchanges

Year-on-year inflation-indexed swap

A year-on-year inflation-indexed swap (YYIIS) is a standard derivative product over inflation rate. The underlying is a single consumer price index (CPI). The first swap of this kind was traded through the inter-dealer broker network in November 1999.

Finance

Yield (finance)

In finance, the yield on a security is a measure of the ex-ante return to a holder of the security. It is one component of return on an investment, the other component being the change in the market price of the security. It is a measure applied to fixed income securities, common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible stocks and bonds, annuities and real estate investments.

Trading basics

Yield management

Yield management (YM) is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource (such as airline seats, hotel room reservations, or advertising inventory). As a specific, inventory-focused branch of revenue management, yield management involves strategic control of inv

Trading basics

Yoga in advertising

Yoga in advertising is the use of images of modern yoga as exercise to market products of any kind, whether related to yoga or not. Goods sold in this way have included canned beer, fast food and computers.

Trading basics

Youth marketing

In the marketing and advertising industry, youth marketing consists of activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 11 to 35. More specifically, there is teen marketing, targeting people age 11 to 17; college marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 24; and young adult marketing, targeting ages 25 to 34.

Securities & exchanges

Zero coupon swap

In finance, a zero coupon swap (ZCS) is an interest rate derivative (IRD). In particular it is a linear IRD, that in its specification is very similar to the much more widely traded interest rate swap (IRS).

Trading basics

Zero lower bound

The zero lower bound (ZLB) or zero nominal lower bound (ZNLB) is a macroeconomic problem that occurs when the short-term nominal interest rate is at or near zero, causing a liquidity trap and limiting the central bank's capacity for inflation targeting.

Securities & exchanges

Zero-coupon inflation swap

A zero-coupon inflation swap (ZCIS), also called a zero-coupon inflation-indexed swap (ZCIIS), is a standard derivative product whose payoff depends on the inflation rate realized over a given period of time. The underlying asset is a single consumer price index (CPI).

Payments & settlement

Zilch (company)

Zilch Technology Limited (known as Zilch) is a British multi-national direct-to-consumer payments network. Since April 2020, Zilch has been regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), obtaining a consumer credit license through the Regulatory Sandbox Programme. Zilch has its headquarters in London, UK, an office in Miami, US, and a technology hub in Krakow, Poland.