Generally, those derivative contracts entered into under an ISDA Master Agreement. Two rookie mistakes to avoid:

  • Firstly, it’s pronounced “sw-ŏp” (to rhyme with chop), but it's spelled “swap”. Any fan of 1970s children's television will know this. It is not, however, true that Noel Edmonds was a pioneering derivative salesman, but that would make a great play. On no account should you say “sw-æp'"” (to rhyme with “crap”), unless you want derivatives insiders to dine out on your misfortune for many years. I still tell people about an unfortunate partner of Stephenson Harwood who made this mistake in 1997.
  • Secondly, when articulating the word ISDA you say "isder", not “eye-ess-dee-aye”. This was a closely guarded industry in-joke, designed to reveal ingénues, but sadly the spoil-sport makers of Big Short Let me Google that for you have rumbled it.

What - you want actual information about swaps? Go, then, to the ISDA Anatomy

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