Custodian has a particular significance in relation to IG's platform. Here, we define custodian in general investing and explain what it means to you when trading with IG.

A currency peg is a governmental policy of fixing the exchange rate of its currency to that of another currency, or occasionally to the gold price. It can sometimes also be referred to as a fixed exchange rate or pegging.

A currency future is a contract that details the price at which currency could be bought or sold and sets a specific date for the exchange.

Currency depreciation is the decline of a currency’s value relative to another currency. It specifically refers to currencies in a floating exchange rate – a system in which a currency’s value is set by the forex market, based on supply and demand.

Currency appreciation is when one currency in a forex pair increases in value relative to the other currency in the pair. Forex traders often talk about one currency ‘strengthening’ in relation to another, meaning that it would cost more to buy, or that it can buy more of another currency when sold.

Crystallization is the term used when a trader or business closes a position and then reopens an identical position immediately.

CPI stands for the consumer price index, an average of several consumer goods and services that are used to give an indication of inflation.

A covered call is when a trader sells (or writes) call options in an asset that they currently have a long position on. They are also known as buy-writes.

Contracts for difference (CFDs) are a type of financial derivative used in CFD trading, which works as an agreement to exchange the difference in the price of an asset from when the position is opened to when it is closed. CFDs can be used to speculate on the future price of a variety of markets, including shares, forex, commodities, indices, bonds, and others.

An industry’s concentration ratio is the size of a certain number of firms in an industry compared to its total size. It is used to calculate one or more firms’ dominance of their sector.

A commodity is a basic physical asset, often used as a raw material in the production of goods or services.

The commission is the charge levied by an investment broker for making trades on a trader’s behalf.

An asset’s closing price is the last level at which it was traded on any given day. This price is often determined by an auction.

A chartist is a trader who relies predominantly on charts to help them understand a financial instrument’s historical price movements, in order to better predict and to speculate on its future performance. They are also commonly known as technical analysts or technical traders.

Cash flow is the amount of money coming into and going out of a company’s accounts, as reported in earnings announcements. It can refer to a single project or the entire business.

When a trader sells an asset at a lower price than they initially paid for it, they have incurred a capital loss. As such, the capital loss is the opposite of capital gain: the profit made when an asset is sold for more than originally paid.

Capital gains tax (or CGT), is the tax levied by the government on the profits made from financial asset sales. CGT regulations and levels vary from country to country.

Capital expenditure, or CAPEX, is the term used for the money spent by businesses on physical assets. It’s an important part of understanding a company’s accounts.