Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 2 terms
Settlement of each day’s trades a fixed number of days later, replacing settlement at the end of a weekly or fortnightly account period.
Every shortening of the cycle narrows the window in which a counterparty can fail, and so the margin the system must collect. It also removes float somebody was earning on, which is why each change is resisted.
The pre-2001 practice of carrying a position forward into the next settlement period for a charge, instead of settling it.
Leverage available to anyone with a broker and no formal margin behind it. Ending it, and moving to rolling settlement, is why positions now settle on a fixed short cycle.