Alternative Investments

A bespoke CDO is a one that is created for a single investor or group of investors who will buy all, or a single tranche of it. When a single tranche is sold, the remaining tranches are often held by the dealer.

A dark pool is a securities exchange mainly used to help facilitate large trades by institutional investors called block trades. This is done in order to avoid having these trades affect the price of the stock they are trading, which would increase trading costs.

A SEF is a trading platform that allows people to buy and sell swaps. It operates similarly to how stocks are bought and sold on an exchange.

An MLP is a business legally structured as a limited partnership that is publicly traded. They have tax benefits compared to a C corporation structure, but only companies in certain industries, usually natural resources of some kind or real estate, can use this structure.

A nonfinancial asset is something the value of which comes from its physical traits, rather than a contractual claim such as the contract of a bond issuer to pay back a bondholder the value of the bond plus interest. Examples of nonfinancial assets include real estate, art, and vehicles.

A collectible is an object that is worth a significantly greater amount of money than a normal object of its type due to its rarity or popularity. Examples include coins, comic books, stamps or antiques.

An exchange traded derivative is any type of derivative that is traded on a financial exchange. This contrasts with derivatives traded over-the-counter (OTC).