Education

VALUATION

Determination of the value of a company's stock based on earnings and the market value of assets.

VALUE DATE

For exchange contracts it is the day on which the two contracting parties exchange the currencies which are being bought or sold. For a spot transaction it is two business banking days forward in the country of the bank providing quotations which determine the spot value date. The only exception to this general rule is the spot day in the quoting centre coinciding with a banking holiday in the country(ies) of the foreign currency(ies). The value date then moves forward a day.

VALUE SPOT

Spot normally settles after two working days.

VALUE TODAY

Transaction executed for same day settlement; sometimes also referred to as "cash transaction".

VANILLA

A simple option whose terms and conditions do not include any provisions other than exercise style, expiry and strike.

VARIATION MARGIN

Profits or losses on open positions in futures and options contracts which are paid or collected daily.

VEGA

Expresses the price change of an option for a one per cent change in the implied volatility.

VERTICAL (BEAR OR BULL) SPREAD

The sale of an option with a high exercise price and the purchase (in the case of a bull) or the sale (in the case of a bear) of an option with a lower exercise price. Both options will have the same expiration date.

VOLATILITY

A measure of the fluctuations in the underlying instrument over a given time period. It is expressed as a percentage and computed as the annualized standard deviation of percentage change in daily price. High values usually mean high risk.

VOLATILITY RISK

The risk in the value of options portfolios due to the unpredictable changes in the volatility of the underlying asset.

VPS

Virtual private server refers to a private server that contains a virtual machine that a trader can use to make trades and run algorithmic trading programs.