Take a look at our list of the financial terms associated with trading and the markets. From beginners starting their trading journey to experts with decades of experience, all traders need to clearly understand a huge number of terms.
Gold is a precious metal and has been used for thousands of years for currency, jewellery and trading. It was first smelted by the ancient Egyptians in around 3600 BC. The desire for gold has led to wars, gold rushes and conquests.
It remains highly sought after for investment purposes and a strong jewellery demand - half of the gold consumption in the world is jewellery, and 40% is investments. It is also used in the manufacture of electronic and medical devices, which accounts for the remaining 10% of the market.
Gold is priced in USD per troy ounce. The lowest price for gold, historically, was $34.83 in January 1970, it reached a record high in September 2011 at $1898.25.
Gold has experienced some significant price fluctuations. There are many factors that can impact gold prices, including central bank reserves, worldwide jewellery and industrial demand (especially from emerging economies) and wealth protection. It can also be affected by the value of the US Dollar and interest rates.
NUGT, also known as the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares, aims to deliver three times the daily return of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. This is a leveraged fund. It is designed for intraday trades and it is not recommended for periods of greater than one day.
The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index is a market-cap weighted index of public companies with global operations in developed and emerging markets. The companies in the index are primarily involved in gold mining, with some also involved in silver mining. Top holdings include Newmont Mining, Barrick Gold, Franco Nevada and Newcrest Mining. Canadian companies represent 52.14% of the asset.
Synthetix (SNX) is a decentralized protocol that lets users gain exposure to assets like other cryptos, gold, and stocks, without actually holding the underlying resource. These synthetic assets are backed by the platform's cryptocurrency, Synthetix Network Token (SNX), which is staked as collateral in order to generate rewards. It is priced in USD and can be traded using the SNX/USD symbol.
A commodity is a raw material asset such as oil, gas, gold, or wheat. Commodities can be categorised into either hard commodities or soft commodities.
What are Soft Commodities?
Soft commodities typically refer to raw materials that are grown rather than mined such as coffee beans or sugar.
What Are Hard Commodities?
Whereas hard commodities must be extracted such as natural gas or crude oil.
A commodity is often exchangeable for other commodities of the same type and can be purchased through either the spot market using cash, or through derivatives like futures.
DBC, also known as the PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking ETF, tracks 14 commodities based on the futures curve. It aims to limit the effect of contango and maximise the effect of backwardation so that investors improve their returns. The commodities included in the ETF are gasoline, heating oil, Brent crude oil, WTI crude oil, gold, wheat, corn, soybeans, sugar, natural gas, zinc, copper, aluminium and silver.
Unlike other commodity ETFs, DBC rolls future contracts based on the shape of the future curve, rather than following a schedule. This allows the ETF to generate the best roll yield by minimising losses and maximising backwardation.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the U.K. Its mandate is to support the economic policies of the government, being independent in maintaining price stability. The Bank of England is authorized to issue banknotes in the United Kingdom, with a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales. It also regulates the issue of banknotes by commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee has the responsibility of managing monetary policy.
What services does the Bank of England provide?
In addition to issuing bank notes, the Bank of England’s provides the following services:
• Monitoring banks and the financial system
• Setting interest rates
• Maintaining the UK’s gold repository
JNUG, also known as Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares, aims to deliver three times the daily returns of junior gold and silver mining companies from developed and emerging markets. It seeks 300% of the performance of the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index. The term junior refers to the size of the firms, which are considered to be small-cap.
This is a single-day fund, and funds should not be expected to provide three time the return of the benchmark index if positions are held for longer than one day. As a leveraged ETF, this asset carries more risk than ETFs that are not leveraged. This asset is aimed at intraday traders and is not suitable for all investors.
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) is an investment fund incorporated in the USA. The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trust's expenses. The Trust holds gold and is expected from time to time to issue Baskets in exchange for deposits of gold and to distribute gold in connection with redemptions of Baskets.
The first US traded gold ETF and the first US-listed ETF backed by a physical asset
For many investors, the costs associated with buying GLD shares in the secondary market and the payment of the Trust's ongoing expenses may be lower than the costs associated with buying, storing and insuring physical gold in a traditional allocated gold bullion account.
Just like many of the other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin was created to improve on some of the perceived failings of Bitcoin - primarily a higher number of tokens and a much faster processing speeds.
Litecoin (LTC) is priced in USD per coin and reached a peak of $341 in December 2017. It was launched in April 2013 by Charlie Lee, a former Google software engineer.
Lee was central to a change in attitude about Bitcoin, helping it gain approval from big names. He wanted to position Litecoin as silver to Bitcoin's gold, and knew that the success of all cryptocurrencies would be tied to stalwart Bitcoin.
Litecoin uses blockchain in a similar way to Bitcoin, but has very low transaction fees and has adopted ‘Segregated Witess (SegWit) - a process by which the size of blocks in a blockchain is reduced by removing data.
Non-farm payrolls are a monthly statistic representing how many people are employed in the US, in manufacturing, construction and goods companies. These statistical reports also known as non-farms, or NFP. The name is derived from jobs that aren’t included in these statistics, which are : agricultural workers and those employed by private households or non-profit organizations. The NFP report data is generally released on the 1st Friday of any calendar month and has the potential to significantly impact multiple markets, including on a global level.
The NFP report is comprised of the following three segments:
• The numbers: jobs created or lost.
• Unemployment rate.
• Average Hourly Earnings. Reflecting the changes in wages enterprises pay for labour.
NFPs are very important to Forex traders as they follow it to see how the USD currency pairs react. Gold is also a popular asset to trade on NFP results.
The US Dollar to Swedish Krona exchange rate is identified by the abbreviation USD/SEK. The US Dollar is by far the world's most-traded currency, accounting for 87% of all over-the-counter FX each day - $4.4 trillion.
The Swedish Krona is the 9th most-traded currency, accounting for 2.2% of daily transactions. US$112 billion worth of SEK is traded daily.
The US Dollar is not only the most ubiquitous currency on the globe, but also a safe-haven asset. In times of market uncertainty traders withdraw from riskier assets into stable USD.
The Swedish krona shares a strong correlation with its Scandinavian peers the Norwegian krone and the Danish krone. These currencies - which all translate as “crown” - came about in 1873 when Sweden and Denmark formed the Scandinavian Monetary Union, backed by the gold standard. Norway joined two years later. When the union was dissolved after World War Two, the countries independently kept the currency.
Silver (XAG) has long-been synonymous with money, indeed, in some languages the two words are the same. The white metal has been used for investment and jewellery for thousands of years, and its distinctive characteristics ensure it continues to be in high-demand.
Silver is priced in USD per troy ounce. Its price peaked at $49.45 in January 1980, and reached an all-time low of $3.55 in February 1991.
The majority (85%) of silver production comes from mining, with the remainder sourced from scrap and stockpiles. While silver can be recycled, it is less economical to do so than with other precious metals. The top producers of silver are Mexico, Peru and China.
Silver is widely used in photographic, industrial, medical and telecommunications technology. It is also highly sought after for investment purposes. Its price is influenced by industrial demand, demand for jewellery, coins, medals and silverware, as well as the price of gold and the strength of the US Dollar.
Copper is found in ore deposits around the world and top producers include Chile, China, Peru and the US. It was the first metal to be used by humans and remains essential for a variety of uses: it is the world's third most widely used metal, after iron and aluminium.
Copper is priced in USD per lb. it's all-time high was $4.58, which it reached in February 2011. Copper hit a record low of $1.94 in January 2016.
Like silver and gold, it is malleable and a good conductor of electricity, however it is also relatively inexpensive which makes it ideal for industrial applications such as wiring, plumbing and circuitry.
The price of copper is influenced by a number of factors including the strength of the US Dollar, demand from China and extraction costs. However, the energy-intensive refining process mean it is also susceptible to changes in oil prices.
Instability in the political climate of key countries where copper is mined can also affect the price.
EUR/SEK is the abbreviation for the euro to Swedish Krona exchange rate. The euro is the 2nd most-traded currency on the planet, making up one side of 31% of daily trades. US$1.59 trillion worth of euros are traded daily. The Swedish Krona is the 9th most-traded currency, accounting for 2.2% of daily transactions. US$112 billion worth of SEK is traded daily.
The euro is the currency of the 19-nation Eurozone, which is overseen by the European Central Bank. The euro, also known as the common currency, the single currency, or the single unit, has an inverse correlation with the US Dollar.
The Swedish krona shares a strong correlation with its Scandinavian peers the Norwegian krone and the Danish krone. These currencies - which all translate as “crown” - came about in 1873 when Sweden and Denmark formed the Scandinavian Monetary Union, backed by the gold standard. Norway joined two years later. When the union was dissolved after World War Two, the countries independently kept the currency.
Palladium has become popular with investors because it has a range of qualities that mean it is difficult to substitute with other metals. It belongs to a group of metals called platinum group metals (PMGs), and is 30 times rarer than gold.
Palladium is priced in USD per troy ounce. It reached a record high of $1126 in January 2018, and fell to an all-time low of $78.25 in August 1991.
Its industrial use is in catalytic converters, where it speeds up chemical reactions, but it is more durable than platinum. It is also popular in jewellery - when mixed with yellow gold it forms an alloy metal that looks like white gold but is much stronger.
Between 70 to 80% of the world output of palladium is produced in Russia and South Africa, so the price of the metal is strongly affected by the political climate in those countries.
Palladium futures allow you to speculate on, or hedge against, changes in the price of palladium. Futures rollover on the fourth Friday of March, May, August and December.
Sugar is a “soft” commodity - meaning it is grown rather than mined. It is produced from sugarcane or, less commonly, sugar beets and was once so rare and expensive it was known as White Gold. Despite obesity concerns, there is still a strong demand for sugar worldwide.
Sugar is priced in USD per lb. It reached its peak of $65.20 in November 1974 and hit an all-time low of $1.25 in January 1967.
Most of the world's sugar comes from sugarcane, with around 20% coming from sugar beets. A small minority is also produced from date palm, sorghum and sugar maple.
Brazil is the biggest producer of sugar in the world, accounting for 21% of total production. However, it is produced all over the world, with 70 countries producing sugar from sugarcane, 40 from sugar beets and 10 from both.
Factors than impact the price of sugar include global inventories, consumption outlook, weather conditions and outlooks, and government regulation.
Sugar futures allow you to speculate on, or hedge against, changes in the price of sugar. Futures rollover on the second Friday of February, April, June and September.
A commodity is a raw material asset such as oil, gas, gold, or wheat. Commodities can be categorised into either hard commodities or soft commodities.
What are Soft Commodities?
Soft commodities typically refer to raw materials that are grown rather than mined such as coffee beans or sugar.
What Are Hard Commodities?
Whereas hard commodities must be extracted such as natural gas or crude oil.
A commodity is often exchangeable for other commodities of the same type and can be purchased through either the spot market using cash, or through derivatives like futures.
DBC, also known as the PowerShares DB Commodity Tracking ETF, tracks 14 commodities based on the futures curve. It aims to limit the effect of contango and maximise the effect of backwardation so that investors improve their returns. The commodities included in the ETF are gasoline, heating oil, Brent crude oil, WTI crude oil, gold, wheat, corn, soybeans, sugar, natural gas, zinc, copper, aluminium and silver.
Unlike other commodity ETFs, DBC rolls future contracts based on the shape of the future curve, rather than following a schedule. This allows the ETF to generate the best roll yield by minimising losses and maximising backwardation.
The Bank of England is the central bank of the U.K. Its mandate is to support the economic policies of the government, being independent in maintaining price stability. The Bank of England is authorized to issue banknotes in the United Kingdom, with a monopoly on the issue of banknotes in England and Wales. It also regulates the issue of banknotes by commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee has the responsibility of managing monetary policy.
What services does the Bank of England provide?
In addition to issuing bank notes, the Bank of England’s provides the following services:
• Monitoring banks and the financial system
• Setting interest rates
• Maintaining the UK’s gold repository
Copper is found in ore deposits around the world and top producers include Chile, China, Peru and the US. It was the first metal to be used by humans and remains essential for a variety of uses: it is the world's third most widely used metal, after iron and aluminium.
Copper is priced in USD per lb. it's all-time high was $4.58, which it reached in February 2011. Copper hit a record low of $1.94 in January 2016.
Like silver and gold, it is malleable and a good conductor of electricity, however it is also relatively inexpensive which makes it ideal for industrial applications such as wiring, plumbing and circuitry.
The price of copper is influenced by a number of factors including the strength of the US Dollar, demand from China and extraction costs. However, the energy-intensive refining process mean it is also susceptible to changes in oil prices.
Instability in the political climate of key countries where copper is mined can also affect the price.
Gold is a precious metal and has been used for thousands of years for currency, jewellery and trading. It was first smelted by the ancient Egyptians in around 3600 BC. The desire for gold has led to wars, gold rushes and conquests.
It remains highly sought after for investment purposes and a strong jewellery demand - half of the gold consumption in the world is jewellery, and 40% is investments. It is also used in the manufacture of electronic and medical devices, which accounts for the remaining 10% of the market.
Gold is priced in USD per troy ounce. The lowest price for gold, historically, was $34.83 in January 1970, it reached a record high in September 2011 at $1898.25.
Gold has experienced some significant price fluctuations. There are many factors that can impact gold prices, including central bank reserves, worldwide jewellery and industrial demand (especially from emerging economies) and wealth protection. It can also be affected by the value of the US Dollar and interest rates.
NUGT, also known as the Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 3x Shares, aims to deliver three times the daily return of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. This is a leveraged fund. It is designed for intraday trades and it is not recommended for periods of greater than one day.
The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index is a market-cap weighted index of public companies with global operations in developed and emerging markets. The companies in the index are primarily involved in gold mining, with some also involved in silver mining. Top holdings include Newmont Mining, Barrick Gold, Franco Nevada and Newcrest Mining. Canadian companies represent 52.14% of the asset.
SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) is an investment fund incorporated in the USA. The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trust's expenses. The Trust holds gold and is expected from time to time to issue Baskets in exchange for deposits of gold and to distribute gold in connection with redemptions of Baskets.
The first US traded gold ETF and the first US-listed ETF backed by a physical asset
For many investors, the costs associated with buying GLD shares in the secondary market and the payment of the Trust's ongoing expenses may be lower than the costs associated with buying, storing and insuring physical gold in a traditional allocated gold bullion account.
EUR/SEK is the abbreviation for the euro to Swedish Krona exchange rate. The euro is the 2nd most-traded currency on the planet, making up one side of 31% of daily trades. US$1.59 trillion worth of euros are traded daily. The Swedish Krona is the 9th most-traded currency, accounting for 2.2% of daily transactions. US$112 billion worth of SEK is traded daily.
The euro is the currency of the 19-nation Eurozone, which is overseen by the European Central Bank. The euro, also known as the common currency, the single currency, or the single unit, has an inverse correlation with the US Dollar.
The Swedish krona shares a strong correlation with its Scandinavian peers the Norwegian krone and the Danish krone. These currencies - which all translate as “crown” - came about in 1873 when Sweden and Denmark formed the Scandinavian Monetary Union, backed by the gold standard. Norway joined two years later. When the union was dissolved after World War Two, the countries independently kept the currency.
JNUG, also known as Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares, aims to deliver three times the daily returns of junior gold and silver mining companies from developed and emerging markets. It seeks 300% of the performance of the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index. The term junior refers to the size of the firms, which are considered to be small-cap.
This is a single-day fund, and funds should not be expected to provide three time the return of the benchmark index if positions are held for longer than one day. As a leveraged ETF, this asset carries more risk than ETFs that are not leveraged. This asset is aimed at intraday traders and is not suitable for all investors.
Just like many of the other cryptocurrencies, Litecoin was created to improve on some of the perceived failings of Bitcoin - primarily a higher number of tokens and a much faster processing speeds.
Litecoin (LTC) is priced in USD per coin and reached a peak of $341 in December 2017. It was launched in April 2013 by Charlie Lee, a former Google software engineer.
Lee was central to a change in attitude about Bitcoin, helping it gain approval from big names. He wanted to position Litecoin as silver to Bitcoin's gold, and knew that the success of all cryptocurrencies would be tied to stalwart Bitcoin.
Litecoin uses blockchain in a similar way to Bitcoin, but has very low transaction fees and has adopted ‘Segregated Witess (SegWit) - a process by which the size of blocks in a blockchain is reduced by removing data.
Non-farm payrolls are a monthly statistic representing how many people are employed in the US, in manufacturing, construction and goods companies. These statistical reports also known as non-farms, or NFP. The name is derived from jobs that aren’t included in these statistics, which are : agricultural workers and those employed by private households or non-profit organizations. The NFP report data is generally released on the 1st Friday of any calendar month and has the potential to significantly impact multiple markets, including on a global level.
The NFP report is comprised of the following three segments:
• The numbers: jobs created or lost.
• Unemployment rate.
• Average Hourly Earnings. Reflecting the changes in wages enterprises pay for labour.
NFPs are very important to Forex traders as they follow it to see how the USD currency pairs react. Gold is also a popular asset to trade on NFP results.
Palladium has become popular with investors because it has a range of qualities that mean it is difficult to substitute with other metals. It belongs to a group of metals called platinum group metals (PMGs), and is 30 times rarer than gold.
Palladium is priced in USD per troy ounce. It reached a record high of $1126 in January 2018, and fell to an all-time low of $78.25 in August 1991.
Its industrial use is in catalytic converters, where it speeds up chemical reactions, but it is more durable than platinum. It is also popular in jewellery - when mixed with yellow gold it forms an alloy metal that looks like white gold but is much stronger.
Between 70 to 80% of the world output of palladium is produced in Russia and South Africa, so the price of the metal is strongly affected by the political climate in those countries.
Palladium futures allow you to speculate on, or hedge against, changes in the price of palladium. Futures rollover on the fourth Friday of March, May, August and December.
Synthetix (SNX) is a decentralized protocol that lets users gain exposure to assets like other cryptos, gold, and stocks, without actually holding the underlying resource. These synthetic assets are backed by the platform's cryptocurrency, Synthetix Network Token (SNX), which is staked as collateral in order to generate rewards. It is priced in USD and can be traded using the SNX/USD symbol.
Silver (XAG) has long-been synonymous with money, indeed, in some languages the two words are the same. The white metal has been used for investment and jewellery for thousands of years, and its distinctive characteristics ensure it continues to be in high-demand.
Silver is priced in USD per troy ounce. Its price peaked at $49.45 in January 1980, and reached an all-time low of $3.55 in February 1991.
The majority (85%) of silver production comes from mining, with the remainder sourced from scrap and stockpiles. While silver can be recycled, it is less economical to do so than with other precious metals. The top producers of silver are Mexico, Peru and China.
Silver is widely used in photographic, industrial, medical and telecommunications technology. It is also highly sought after for investment purposes. Its price is influenced by industrial demand, demand for jewellery, coins, medals and silverware, as well as the price of gold and the strength of the US Dollar.
Sugar is a “soft” commodity - meaning it is grown rather than mined. It is produced from sugarcane or, less commonly, sugar beets and was once so rare and expensive it was known as White Gold. Despite obesity concerns, there is still a strong demand for sugar worldwide.
Sugar is priced in USD per lb. It reached its peak of $65.20 in November 1974 and hit an all-time low of $1.25 in January 1967.
Most of the world's sugar comes from sugarcane, with around 20% coming from sugar beets. A small minority is also produced from date palm, sorghum and sugar maple.
Brazil is the biggest producer of sugar in the world, accounting for 21% of total production. However, it is produced all over the world, with 70 countries producing sugar from sugarcane, 40 from sugar beets and 10 from both.
Factors than impact the price of sugar include global inventories, consumption outlook, weather conditions and outlooks, and government regulation.
Sugar futures allow you to speculate on, or hedge against, changes in the price of sugar. Futures rollover on the second Friday of February, April, June and September.
The US Dollar to Swedish Krona exchange rate is identified by the abbreviation USD/SEK. The US Dollar is by far the world's most-traded currency, accounting for 87% of all over-the-counter FX each day - $4.4 trillion.
The Swedish Krona is the 9th most-traded currency, accounting for 2.2% of daily transactions. US$112 billion worth of SEK is traded daily.
The US Dollar is not only the most ubiquitous currency on the globe, but also a safe-haven asset. In times of market uncertainty traders withdraw from riskier assets into stable USD.
The Swedish krona shares a strong correlation with its Scandinavian peers the Norwegian krone and the Danish krone. These currencies - which all translate as “crown” - came about in 1873 when Sweden and Denmark formed the Scandinavian Monetary Union, backed by the gold standard. Norway joined two years later. When the union was dissolved after World War Two, the countries independently kept the currency.
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