Dictionary

The Jolly Contrarian’s Dictionary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ →Go uptown Index — Click ᐅ to expand: Dictionary Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Splendid American wag Ambrose Bierce published, to great acclaim, a Devil’s Dictionary a hundred years or so ago, thus inaugurating a fine tradition of subversive glossaries: Douglas Adams and John Lloyd’s The Deeper Meaning of Liff being one, and Dr. William Margrabe’s online Devil’s Derivatives Dictionary — dating back to 2001 — being another. Mr. Margrabe’s excellent resource has long since been put to pasture and has fallen fallow — though you can find it if you look hard enough — and since the world of financial services has moved on in 20 years to the sunlit uplands we now inhabit, here is the JC’s meagre contribution to the venerable tradition.

See also

• Douglas Adams
• Ambrose Bierce
• William Margrabe’s fabled, long lost but now found again Devil’s Derivatives Dictionary

Dictionary 3-PISA Absolute Abstruse Ad hoc Administrator Affidavit of service Alpha Amanuensis Anal Annal Annual Asset-backed security Assignee Assignor At-the-money Averagarianism Aïessdiyé Backpfeifengesicht Bad apple Bayesian reasoning Beta Bifurcation Black duck Bloatware Braggadocious Branch Carval chain Carve-in Celery peddler Ceteris paribus Change journey ChatGPT Commodities Confusion entropy Constructive dismissal Contingent convertible securities Council Crypto Cultural appropriation Cunisian Debt security Definier and definand Deliver Delta Derivative Diaeresis Donut Double standard Due diligence Due diligence questionnaire Dyscomium Face value Financial service Forward contract Frippery General counsel Guff Hedge Hedge fund Holder of record Humblebraggadocio If and to the extent that Indemnified Indemnifier Ineffable Iteration Lawyer acceptance factor Leverage Liability Liquidity period Litigationey Lived experience Loyalty discount Magic Magic circle law firm Mark Mudblood Murmuration Negotiate Nettance Network Nonsense on stilts Obligation Outstanding Pareto triage Passive-aggressive Payee Petard Piece of paper Platonic form Plausible deniability Positivism Problem statement Problematic Profit and loss Receivable Recharacterisation Redeem Redefinitions Regulatory derivative Relevant Repackaging programme Res ipsa loquitur Satisfice Silencer Silly buggers Sine qua non Spot rate Statistical arbitrage Subject matter expert Subordinated Subrogation Subsidiary System effect Target operating model The Man The Wording Tier 1 capital To the extent that Trainee Turing machine