Dictionary

The Jolly Contrarian’s Dictionary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ Go Premium Dictionary 2(a)(iii) - 1987 ISDA Provision 3-PISA A priori A swap as a loan Absolute Abstruse Ad hoc Administrator Adverb Affidavit of service Affiliate AG Agency problem Algorithm Ally Alpha Amanuensis American bacon drafting Anal Annal Annihilism Annual Antitrust Artificial intelligence Asset-backed security Assignee Assignor At-the-money Averagarianism Axe Aïessdiyé Backpfeifengesicht Backtesting Bad apple Bail-in Barter Bayesian prior Belgian dentist Best efforts Beta Beverage Bifurcation Black duck Bloatware Boilerplate Bonus Boredom heat-death Bottom of the range Braggadocious Branch Breakage costs Bright-line test Brownian motion Bureaucracy Business as usual Business continuity management Buy-in Calculation Agent Capital structure Cardozo indeterminacy Carry trade Carval chain Carve-in Carve-out Cash brokerage Celery Celery peddler Ceteris paribus Change journey Change management ChatGPT Cheapest-to-deliver Chekhov’s gun Clabby conversation Client communication Clogs Co-head Cocktail napkin Comfortable Commodities Community Compensation Competence phase transition Compliance Confidentiality agreement Confusion entropy Constructive Constructive dismissal Consultation Contingent convertible securities Copyright Cost-value threshold Council Counterparty credit risk Course of dealing Critical theory Crypto Cryptobabble Cultural appropriation Cunisian Currency indemnity Customer Data modernism Deal fatigue Debt security Deem Deemery Deep dive Definier and definand Definisn’t Deliver Delta Derivative Desire lines Deterministic Diaeresis Discretion Disintermediation DK Document risk Donut Double standard Drill down Duck-billed platypus Due diligence Due diligence questionnaire Dyscomium Eaglery Easance Edge Education Effable Emergence Emission allowances Employment derivatives Entropy Epistemic priority Equivalent Exemplary damages Extraordinary rendition Extreme prejudice Face value Fair, large and liberal Fifteenth law of worker entropy Finance contract Finance fiction Financial instrument Financial service Fire drill Flawed asset Flow Follow your passion For Force majeure Forward contract Fractal Frippery Fungible Furniture Futures Gaslighting General counsel Gin horizon GmbH Governing law Grotesque Guff Hedge Hedge fund Hermeneutics Heterogeneity High modernism Hive mind Hold harmless Holder of record Horcrux Humble Humblebraggadocio Hype cycle I believe If and to the extent that Ignore Implicitly In toto Incluso Indemnified Indemnifier Ineffable Information Inhouse counsel Innovation Inter alia Interdisintermediation Intersectionality Inure ISDA ninja Iteration Just so story Key non-performance indicator Key performance indicator Index — Click ᐅ to expand: Dictionary Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

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 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