Investing Terms

A repurchase agreement is a short-term loan structured as the sale of securities. As part of the repo, the seller agrees to buy the securities back at a later date. Learn more about a repo works at FXCM Insights.

A Ponzi scheme is a type of financial fraud that occurs when the perpetrator promises consistent, guaranteed returns on an investment. In reality, however, it simply involves paying early investors by using payments from new investors.

In 1973, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) placed an oil embargo on allies of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Until March of 1974, exorbitant energy prices plagued the global economy, prompting the creation of the petrodollar.

The Special Drawing Right (SDR) is an international reserve asset. Created by the IMF in 1969, SDRs are used to facilitate transactions and supplement IMF member country reserves. An SDR is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members.

Layering is an illegal tactic used to manipulate markets as a means of driving the price of an asset up or down, which is followed by a trade in the opposite direction. Learn more about layering at FXCM Insights.

Stop running is the practice of manipulating the price action of a security in order to trigger a bulk execution of stop loss orders at market. A legal trading strategy, it involves driving a market to a desired location and profiting from the ensuing pricing fluctuations.

Learn more about what constitutes a currency war, which occurs when multiple countries devalue or depreciate their currencies at the same time.

Learn the ins and outs of the PEG ratio, including how to calculate it and include it as part of your strategy, at FXCM Insights.

The Intercontinental Exchange is an industry leader in the provision of derivatives and over-the-counter products. Since launching in the late 1990s, ICE has become a global destination for the trade of energies, agricultural and debt-based instruments.

Front-running is an unethical and illegal trading practice in which a broker with advance knowledge of a specific market order in a currency or other financial security for a client earns a profit by placing an order for their own account in advance of the client's larger order. Front-running is akin to insider trading, in that the perpetrator has advance knowledge of the larger client order and buys ahead of…

OPEC is made up of some of the largest oil-producing nations in the world, making it a major political and economic player. Learn more about OPEC at FXCM.