XPayIndustry WIKIBack to home
XPAY KNOWLEDGE

Industry WIKI

Digital assets and currencies

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

Finance

Accrual accounting in the public sector

Accrual accounting in the public sector is a method to present financial information on government operations.

Fiat currencies

Bank reserves

Bank reserves are a commercial bank's cash holdings physically held by the bank, and deposits held in the bank's account with the central bank. In most countries, the central bank may set minimum reserve requirements that mandate commercial banks under their purview to hold cash or deposits at the central bank equivalent to at least a prescribed percentage of their liabilities, such as c

Banking

Bank secrecy

Banking secrecy, alternatively known as financial privacy, banking discretion, or bank safety, is a conditional agreement between a bank and its clients that all foregoing activities remain secure, confidential, and private. Most often associated with banking in Switzerland, banking secrecy is prevalent in Luxembourg, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Lebanon, among other off-sh

Trading basics

Bond convexity

In finance, bond convexity is a measure of the non-linear relationship of bond prices to changes in interest rates, and is defined as the second derivative of the price of the bond with respect to interest rates (duration is the first derivative). In general, the higher the duration, the more sensitive the bond price is to the change in interest rates. Bond convexity is one of the most

Fiat currencies

Carbon quantitative easing

Carbon quantitative easing (CQE) is an unconventional monetary policy or monetary program that is featured in a proposed international climate policy, called a global carbon reward or simply, the carbon reward. The main goal of CQE is to guarantee the price floor of a carbon reward market so that this market can scale to decarbonise the world economy. The market instrument is also called

Trading basics

Closed-end fund

A closed-end fund (CEF), also known as a closed-end mutual fund, is an investment vehicle fund that raises capital by issuing a fixed number of shares at its inception, and then invests that capital in financial assets such as stocks and bonds. After inception it is closed to new capital, although fund managers sometimes employ leverage. Investors can buy and sell the existing shares in

Banking

Collective trust fund

A collective trust fund or collective investment trust (CIT) is a legal trust administered by a bank or trust company that combines assets for multiple investors who meet specific requirements set forth in the fund's declaration of trust. Typically, a collective trust pools assets from corporate and governmental profit sharing, pension and stock bonus plans, and charitable and other tax

Trading basics

Commodity pool operator

A Commodity pool operator (CPO) is an individual or organization that solicits or receives funds to use in the operation of a commodity pool, syndicate, collective investment vehicle, investment trust, or similar structure, specifically for trading (buying and selling) of and in commodity interests. Such commodity interests include commodity futures, swaps, options and/or leverage transa

Trading basics

Corruption

Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a crime that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities like bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, and fraud as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying. Political corruption occu

Trading basics

Discretionary investment management

Discretionary investment management is a form of professional investment management in which investments are made on behalf of clients through a variety of securities. The term "discretionary" refers to investment decisions being made by the investment manager based on the investment manager's judgement rather than under the direction of the client. The major aim of the services offered

Fiat currencies

Discretionary policy

In macroeconomics, discretionary policy is an economic policy based on the ad hoc judgment of policymakers as opposed to policy set by predetermined rules. For instance, a central banker could make decisions on interest rates on a case-by-case basis instead of allowing a set rule, such as Friedman's k-percent rule, an inflation target following the Taylor rule, or a nominal income targe

Trading basics

Duration (finance)

In finance, duration is a measure of how the price of a fixed-income instrument responds to a change in interest rates. It is used to compare rate risk across bonds and to construct hedges, and is often paired with convexity and the price value of a basis point. Duration-based estimates work best for small, parallel shifts in the yield curve.

Trading basics

Expenditures in the United States federal budget

The United States federal budget consists of mandatory expenditures (which includes Medicare and Social Security), discretionary spending for defense, Cabinet departments (e.g., Justice Department) and agencies (e.g., Securities & Exchange Commission), and interest payments on debt. This is currently over half of U.S. government spending, the remainder coming from state and local governm

Banking

Free banking

Free banking is a monetary arrangement where banks are free to issue their own paper currency (banknotes) while also being subject to no special regulations beyond those applicable to most enterprises.

Payments & settlement

Fuel card

A fuel card or fleet card is used as a payment card most commonly for gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at gas stations. Fleet cards can also be used to pay for vehicle maintenance and expenses at the discretion of the fleet owner or manager. Most fuel cards are charge cards.

Finance

Fund governance

Fund governance refers to a system of checks and balances and work performed by the governing body (board) of an investment fund to ensure that the fund is operated not only in accordance with law, but also in the best interests of the fund and its investors. The objective of fund governance is to uphold the regulatory principles commonly known as the four pillars of investor protection

Trading basics

Fund of funds

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can

Securities & exchanges

Growth investing

Growth investing is a type of investment strategy focused on capital appreciation. Those who follow this style, known as growth investors, invest in companies that exhibit signs of above-average growth, even if the share price appears expensive in terms of metrics such as price-to-earnings or price-to-book ratios. In typical usage, the term "growth investing" contrasts with the strategy

Trading basics

Hang Seng Credit Card Ltd v Tsang Nga Lee

Hang Seng Credit Card Ltd v Tsang Nga Lee [2000] 3 HKLRD 33 is a landmark decision of the Court of First Instance of Hong Kong in which Yam J held that a clause in a credit card agreement obliging a defaulting cardholder to pay, on a full indemnity basis, all costs and expenses incurred by the card issuer in enforcing the agreement was unconscionable under the Unconscionable Contracts Or

Trading basics

Household debt

Household debt is the combined debt of all people in a household, including consumer debt and mortgage loans. A significant rise in the level of this debt coincides historically with many severe economic crises and was a cause of the U.S. and subsequent euro area crisis. Several economists have argued that lowering this debt is essential to economic recovery in the U.S. and selected Euro

Trading basics

Implied level of government service

The implied level of government service is the value of government benefits and services provided a person, partnership, corporation, or other legal entity over a given period of time, including the proportional value of general governmental expenses and social welfare costs.

Trading basics

Income

Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For example, a person's income in an economic sense may be different from their income as defined by law.

Finance

Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education

The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Agency (Indonesian: Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan, lit. 'Institute of Education Fund Management', abbreviated as LPDP) is a public service agency of the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia mandated with managing the state's education endowment fund. Investment in the fund partially fulfills a clause in the Constitution of Indonesia stipulating

Trading basics

Institutional investor

An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked companies, insurers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, charities, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, investment advisors, endowments, a

Trading basics

Labour-sponsored venture capital corporation

A labour-sponsored venture capital corporation (LSVCC), known alternately as labour-sponsored investment fund (LSIF) or simply retail venture capital (RVC), is a fund managed by investment professionals that invests in small to mid-sized Canadian companies. The Canadian federal government and some provincial governments offer tax credits to LSVCC investors to promote the growth of such c

Trading basics

Lease-by-room

Lease-by-room, also known as individual leasing, is an arrangement whereby a tenant and their roommates pay rent for their own rooms instead of each tenant being equally liable for the rent for the whole apartment. Typically lease-by-room leases are multi-room apartments or townhomes with shared bathrooms and living rooms. What distinguishes lease-by-room leases from joint leases is that

Banking

Lender of last resort

In public finance, a lender of last resort (LOLR) is a financial entity, generally a central bank, that acts as the provider of liquidity to a financial institution which finds itself unable to obtain sufficient liquidity in the interbank lending market when other facilities or such sources have been exhausted. It functions as a government guarantee of liquidity to financial institutions

Trading basics

Listed investment company

A listed investment company (LIC) is an Australian closed-end collective investment scheme similar to investment trusts in the UK and closed-end funds in the United States. Instead of regularly issuing new shares or canceling shares as investors join and leave the fund, investors buy and sell to each other on the ASX. They are traded like other securities on the Australian stock exchange

Trading basics

Manager of managers investment

"Manager of managers" (MoM) is an investment approach by institutions who proprietary manage capital. Different investment managers are selected and investment mandates given to them. The allocated capital is then managed in Separate Managed Accounts by the respective selected asset managers. It is a solution often offered by big asset management divisions from investment banks but also

Finance

Martingale pricing

Martingale pricing is a pricing approach based on the notions of martingale and risk neutrality. The martingale pricing approach is a cornerstone of modern quantitative finance and can be applied to a variety of derivatives contracts, e.g. options, futures, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives, etc.

Finance

Ministry of finance

A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position.

Fiat currencies

Monetary base

In economics, the monetary base (also base money, money base, high-powered money, reserve money, outside money, central bank money or, in the UK, narrow money) in a country is the total amount of money created by the central bank. This includes:

Trading basics

Monetary hawk and dove

A monetary hawk, or hawk for short, is someone who advocates keeping inflation low as the top priority in monetary policy. In contrast, a monetary dove is someone who emphasizes other issues, especially low unemployment, over low inflation. The term monetary pigeon has been used to describe moderate or centrist viewpoints.

Fiat currencies

Monetary reform

Monetary reform refers to proposals to change a country's monetary system, including how money is created, regulated, and distributed. Such reforms seek to address perceived problems with current monetary schemes, like financial instability, wealth inequality, or inflation. Monetary reform movements grow during economic crises, proposing alternatives to prevailing systems.

Fiat currencies

Monetary/fiscal debate

The monetary/fiscal policy debate, otherwise known as the Ando–Modigliani/Friedman–Meiselman debate (or AM/FM debate from the main instigators' initials, and for this reason sometimes jokingly called the "radio stations debate"), was the exchange of viewpoints about the comparative efficiency of monetary policies and fiscal policies that originated with a work co-authored by Milton Fried

Fiat currencies

Negative interest on excess reserves

Negative interest on excess reserves is an instrument of unconventional monetary policy applied by central banks to encourage lending by making it costly for commercial banks to hold their excess reserves at central banks so they will lend more readily to the private sector. Such a policy is usually a response to very slow economic growth, deflation, and deleveraging.

Trading basics

Net asset value

Net asset value (NAV) is the value of an entity's assets minus the value of its liabilities, often in relation to open-end, mutual funds, hedge funds, and venture capital funds. Shares of such funds registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are usually bought and redeemed at their net asset value. It is also a key figure with regard to hedge funds and venture capital fu

Banking

Nominal income target

A nominal income target is a monetary policy target. Such targets are adopted by central banks to manage national economic activity. Nominal aggregates are not adjusted for inflation. Nominal income aggregates that can serve as targets include nominal gross domestic product (NGDP) and nominal gross domestic income (GDI). Central banks use a variety of techniques to hit their targets, inc

Trading basics

Nonrecourse debt

Nonrecourse debt or a nonrecourse loan (sometimes hyphenated as non-recourse) is a secured loan (debt) that is secured by a pledge of collateral, typically real property, but for which the borrower is not personally liable. If the borrower defaults, the lender can seize and sell the collateral, but if the collateral sells for less than the debt, the lender cannot seek that deficiency ba

Finance

Offshore fund

An offshore fund is generally a collective investment scheme domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction. Like the term "offshore company", the term is more descriptive than definitive, and both the words 'offshore' and 'fund' may be construed differently.

Finance

Offshore trust

An offshore trust is a conventional trust that is formed under the laws of an offshore jurisdiction.

Trading basics

Performance fee

A performance fee is a fee that a client account or an investment fund may be charged by the investment manager that manages its assets in addition to its management fee.

Finance

Private equity fund

A private equity fund (PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. Private equity funds are typically limited partnerships with a fixed term of 10 years (often with one- or two-year extensions). At inception, institutional inv

Trading basics

Project No One Leaves

Project No One Leaves (PNOL) is a Boston non-profit tenants' rights organization which provides legal education to people living in foreclosed homes to enable them to understand and protect their legal rights. The group was established in 2008 by members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau who specialized in housing law in response to a perceived spike in foreclosures and mass evictions in

Trading basics

Public budgeting

Public budgeting is a field of public administration and a discipline in the academic study of public administration. Budgeting is characterized by its approaches, functions, formation, and type.

Finance

Qualifying investor alternative investment fund

Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund or QIAIF is a Central Bank of Ireland regulatory classification established in 2013 for Ireland's five tax-free legal structures for holding assets. The Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle or ICAV is the most popular of the five Irish QIAIF structures, it is the main tax-free structure for foreign investors holding Irish assets.

Trading basics

Rent control in the United States

In the United States, rent control refers to laws or ordinances that set price controls on the rent of residential housing to function as a price ceiling. More loosely, "rent control" describes several types of price control:

Finance

Returns-based style analysis

Returns-based style analysis (RBSA) is a statistical technique used in finance to deconstruct the returns of investment strategies using a variety of explanatory variables. The model results in a strategy's exposures to asset classes or other factors, interpreted as a measure of a fund or portfolio manager's investment style. While the model is most frequently used to show an equity mutu

Finance

Robo-advisor

Robo-advisors or robo-advisers are financial advisers that provide personalized financial advice and investment management online with moderate to minimal human intervention. A robo-advisor provides digital financial advice that is personalised based on mathematical rules or algorithms. These algorithms are designed by human financial advisors, investment managers and data scientists, an

Securities & exchanges

Securities research

Securities research is a discipline within the financial services industry about securities. Securities research professionals are known most generally as "analysts", "research analysts", or "securities analysts"; all the foregoing terms are synonymous. Research analysts produce research reports and typically issue a recommendation: buy ("overweight"), hold, or sell ("underweight"); see

Trading basics

Social finance

Social finance is a category of financial services that aims to leverage private capital to address challenges in areas of social and environmental need. Having gained popularity after the 2008 financial crisis, it is notable for its public benefit focus. Mechanisms of creating shared social value are not new; however, social finance is conceptually unique as an approach to solving socia

Finance

Social trading

Social trading is a form of investing that allows investors to observe the trading behavior of their peers and expert traders. The primary objective is to follow their investment strategies using copy trading or mirror trading. Social trading requires little or no knowledge about financial markets.

Trading basics

Split capital investment trust

A split capital investment trust (split) is a type of investment trust which issues different classes of share to give the investor a choice of shares to match their needs. Most splits have a limited life determined at launch known as the wind-up date. Typically the life of a split capital trust is five to ten years.

Trading basics

Subprime lending

In finance, subprime lending (also referred to as near-prime, subpar, non-prime, and second-chance lending) is the provision of loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule.

Trading basics

Systematic investment plan

A systematic investment plan (SIP) is an investment vehicle offered by many mutual funds to investors, allowing them to invest small amounts periodically instead of lump sums. The frequency of investment is usually weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Trading basics

Tax expenditure

Tax expenditures are government revenue losses from tax exclusions, exemptions, deductions, credits, deferrals, and preferential tax rates. They are a counterpart to direct expenditures, in that they both are forms of government spending.

Finance

Tax transparent fund

A tax transparent fund (TTF) - also known as an authorised contractual scheme fund - is the proposed authorised collective investment scheme structure in the United Kingdom once the UK Finance Bill 2012 becomes an act and when the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Corporation Tax Act 2010 are amended, sometime mid-2012. TTFs will then have the option to be based in the UK r

Fiat currencies

Taxpayers' money

Taxpayers' money or taxpayer dollars is a phrase that supposes government spending is dispersed from an aggregation of tax revenues, and emphasises a putative cohort of taxpayers from whom said revenue is collected. The phrase is associated with Margaret Thatcher, who asserted in 1983 that "the state has no source of money, other than the money people earn themselves. If the state wishes

Securities & exchanges

Thematic investing

Thematic investing is a form of investment that aims to identify macro-level trends and the underlying investments that stand to benefit from the materialisation of those trends. Thematic investing aims to seize opportunities arising from megatrends likely to shape the global economy in the decades ahead.

Trading basics

Traditional investments

In finance, the notion of traditional investments refers to putting money into well-known assets (such as bonds, cash, real estate, and equity shares) with the expectation of capital appreciation, dividends, and interest earnings. Traditional investments are to be contrasted with alternative investments.

Trading basics

Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive 2009

The Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (Directive 2009/65/EC, "UCITS") is a directive of the European Union (EU) that allows collective investment schemes to operate freely throughout the EU on the basis of a single authorisation from one member state. EU member states are entitled to have additional regulatory requirements for the benefit of inve

Finance

Wagner's law

Wagner's law, also known as the law of increasing state activity, is the observation that public expenditure increases as national income rises. It is named after the German economist Adolph Wagner (1835–1917), who first observed the effect in his own country and then for other countries.