GETTING STARTED
Markets Decoded
The words the market already uses, in plain English. Nothing here is Flowryd-specific — it is the vocabulary a deal assumes you have. If a term on a blueprint or in a deal room is unfamiliar, it is explained here.
The instruments
Repo
A sale of securities with an agreement to buy them back later at a set price. It is financing, not a trade — cash now, securities as security.KitchenThe loan against the house, not the sale of it.
Primary issuance
The first sale of a new instrument, from the issuer to investors.
Secondary market
Trading of an instrument after issuance, between investors rather than with the issuer.
SOFR
Secured Overnight Financing Rate — the benchmark US rate that replaced USD LIBOR. A SOFR-linked bond pays interest referenced to it.
ETF
Exchange-traded fund: a fund whose units trade like a share. Liquid and priced continuously, which is why it makes usable collateral.
Securing the exposure
Collateral
Assets pledged to secure an obligation, so the party taking the risk has something to fall back on.
Haircut
The discount applied to collateral’s market value, so the lender stays covered if the value falls.KitchenYou budget above the quote, because the quote will move.
Margin call
A demand for more collateral once what is pledged falls below what is required. It repeats through the life of the deal.
Evaluated pricing
A price for an instrument that does not trade often, derived from models and comparable trades rather than a live quote.
Settling it
DvP
Delivery versus payment: the securities move only if the cash moves, and the cash only if the securities do.
PvP
Payment versus payment: two cash legs settle together, used where currencies are exchanged.
Atomic settlement
Both legs succeed or neither does, in one indivisible step. There is no window in which one party has delivered and the other has not.KitchenBoth taps fitted before the water goes on.
Finality
The point after which a settled transfer cannot be reversed. Different rails reach it at different speeds.
T+1 / T+0
How long after the trade date settlement happens. T+0 is same day; atomic settlement collapses the gap entirely.
Who does what
Issuer
The entity that creates and sells the instrument, and owes on it.
Placement agent
Finds the investors and places the issue with them.
Custodian
Holds assets safe on someone else’s behalf. Non-custodial of risk — it takes no principal position.
Transfer agent
Maintains the official record of who owns what, acting for the issuer.
Registry
The definitive record of ownership. If the registry does not say you own it, you do not.
CSD
Central securities depository: the institution where securities are held and settled centrally.
Trustee
Acts for the holders of an instrument, enforcing its terms against the issuer.
Collateral agent
Values, holds and releases collateral on behalf of the parties.
Market maker
Quotes both a buy and a sell price, so there is someone to trade with.
Clearing broker
Steps between counterparties to manage settlement and credit exposure.
Onchain
Tokenisation
Representing an asset as a transferable record on a shared ledger.
Onchain / offchain
Whether a record or a payment lives on the shared ledger, or inside one firm’s own systems.
Tokenised cash
Money represented on a ledger — a stablecoin or a bank deposit token — so it can settle against a tokenised asset in the same step.
Reference data
The static facts about an instrument: identifiers, terms, dates. Everyone needs the same version of them.
Oracle
A service that brings an external price or fact onto a ledger so a contract can act on it.
Party ID
The identifier that names an organisation on the network. Permanent and case-sensitive — two IDs differing only by case are two different parties.
Onchain market formation. None of these definitions change when a market moves onto a shared ledger — the obligations are the same. What changes is that the record every party reads is the same record, and the legs can settle in one step instead of two.