Finance terms from the week of Monday, September 21, 2026
35 clues and answers from Monday, September 21, 2026 to Sunday, September 27, 2026, each with a
plain-language definition where the term is one worth knowing. These
puzzles are no longer playable; today's game is on the
play page and the last seven days are in the
practice archive.
1 A pioneering crypto derivatives exchange founded in 2014, famous for 100x-leverage perpetual swaps and a US guilty plea over anti-money-laundering failures, told users this week it will permanently shut its platform on Sept. 23. Name it.
Answer: BITMEX(6 letters)
2 Oil jumped above $92 a barrel this week after two ships hauling crude were struck in the Strait of Hormuz, reviving supply fears. What single word names that class of vessel built to carry liquid cargo in bulk?
Answer: TANKER(6 letters)
3 Adobe walked away from its $20 billion takeover of this San Francisco collaborative design-software maker after 15 months of antitrust review, handing the target a $1 billion termination fee. Name the company that kept the break fee.
Answer: FIGMA(5 letters)
4 In fixed income, this measures the weighted average time until a bond's cash flows are received, and is used as the first-order estimate of the percentage price fall caused by a one-percentage-point rise in yields. What is the term?
Answer: DURATION(8 letters)
A bond's price sensitivity to interest rates, expressed in years. A duration of 7 implies roughly a 7% price fall if yields rise one percentage point.
5 With the third quarter's books closing on Sept. 30, a sales team may push far more product onto distributors than they can sell just to book revenue before the deadline. What word completes the name of this practice, channel ___?
Answer: STUFFING(8 letters)
Channel stuffing, shipping more product to distributors than they can sell in order to record revenue earlier.
1 On Sept. 18 this Nvidia-backed builder and operator of AI data centres publicly filed its registration paperwork for a US stock market debut, the latest AI infrastructure name to head for public markets. Name the company.
Answer: NSCALE(6 letters)
2 On Sept. 16 Brazil's central bank trimmed its benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 13.75%. That overnight rate takes its name from the country's electronic settlement system for government securities. What is it called?
Answer: SELIC(5 letters)
Brazil's benchmark policy interest rate, set by the central bank's monetary policy committee.
3 Backed by Energy Capital Partners, this Sedalia, Missouri provider of gas-turbine power plants and aeroderivative services moved this month toward a US listing reported to target a valuation as high as $50 billion. Name the company.
Answer: PROENERGY(9 letters)
4 In fixed income, duration gives the first-order estimate of how a bond's price moves when yields shift. What single word names the second-order measure, the curvature of the price-yield relationship, that explains why prices rise more than duration predicts when yields fall?
Answer: CONVEXITY(9 letters)
The curvature in a bond's price-yield relationship - how much its duration itself changes as yields move.
5 The US federal fiscal year closes on Sept. 30, so agencies race to legally commit annual appropriations before the deadline; any budget authority left uncommitted simply expires and is no longer available to spend. What single word names that expiry?
Answer: LAPSE(5 letters)
The expiry of spending authority when Congress has not enacted an appropriation, which is what triggers a shutdown.
1 President Trump announced a security deal this week covering the world's largest island, a self-governing Arctic territory of Denmark, and shares of a small energy firm carrying its name soared more than 144% before the open. Name the island.
Answer: GREENLAND(9 letters)
2 Chip stocks powered a record tech rally on Sept. 21. Shares of this Santa Clara pioneer of the x86 processor, for decades the world's largest chipmaker before its recent stumbles, popped 12% in a single session. Name the company.
Answer: INTEL(5 letters)
3 Alachua, Florida-based nerve-repair implant maker Axogen agreed this month to pay about $200 million for this privately held developer of nerve-monitoring and nerve-connector devices. Name the target company.
Answer: BIOCIRCUIT(10 letters)
4 In economics, this single word names the uncomfortable combination of stalling output, rising unemployment and persistently high price increases, a mix that leaves a central bank no easy choice since fixing one problem worsens the other.
Answer: STAGFLATION(11 letters)
The combination of stagnant growth, high unemployment and high inflation at the same time.
5 With the third quarter closing on Sept. 30, listed companies bar directors and staff from buying or selling their own shares until results are published, to avoid trading on numbers the public cannot see. What single word names that closed window?
Answer: BLACKOUT(8 letters)
Thursday, September 24, 2026
1 The US securities regulator proposed this month lifting the market-value threshold for "large ___ filer" status from $700 million to $2 billion, and keeping newly listed firms out of that category for 60 months after an IPO. What word fills the blank?
Answer: ACCELERATED(11 letters)
2 The international crude benchmark for November delivery changed hands near $97.20 a barrel this week, a few dollars above the US October contract at about $92.56. Name the North Sea grade that sets that international price.
Answer: BRENT(5 letters)
The North Sea crude benchmark used to price much of the world's internationally traded oil.
3 On Sept. 21 this Melbourne-based radiopharmaceutical company, known for its prostate-cancer imaging agent Illuccix, agreed to buy German isotope specialist ITM in a deal valued at about $1.65 billion. Name the acquirer.
Answer: TELIX(5 letters)
4 In bond markets, this is a debt security backed only by the issuer's general credit and earning power, with no specific plant, property or receivable pledged as security. What is that unsecured instrument called?
Answer: DEBENTURE(9 letters)
A debt instrument backed only by the issuer's general creditworthiness rather than by specific pledged collateral.
5 As the books close on Sept. 30, accountants record revenue already earned and expenses already incurred but not yet invoiced or paid, so the quarter reflects activity rather than cash movement. What single word names such an entry?
Answer: ACCRUAL(7 letters)
Recognising revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of when cash moves.
1 Shares of this College Park, Maryland trapped-ion quantum computing firm jumped more than 13% this week after it said it had run the first real-time decoder for correcting errors during a quantum computation. Name the company.
Answer: IONQ(4 letters)
2 On Sept. 21 this tech-heavy US composite index rose 2.26% to 27,122 for a record close, then shed 1.13% two sessions later as the 10-year government yield pushed above 5.1%. Name the index.
Answer: NASDAQ(6 letters)
3 On Sept. 22 this Georgia-based payments and business-banking technology company agreed to go private in a roughly $1.6 billion deal led by its own chief executive. Give the first word of its name.
Answer: PRIORITY(8 letters)
4 In mergers and acquisitions, this word describes a transaction that raises the buyer's earnings per share once the target is consolidated, the opposite of a deal that is dilutive. What is the term for that effect?
Answer: ACCRETION(9 letters)
5 Through late September combines roll across the US Midwest gathering the corn and soybean crop, and grain futures often print a seasonal low as supply floods the market. What single word names that annual in-gathering of a crop?
Answer: HARVEST(7 letters)
Saturday, September 26, 2026
1 Shares of this Cambridge, Massachusetts content-delivery network and cloud-security provider jumped more than 14% on Sept. 24 after it announced a multiyear infrastructure deal with Anthropic, the developer of the Claude AI models. Name the company.
Answer: AKAMAI(6 letters)
2 Precious metals kept climbing this week: bullion added 0.77% to about $4,380 an ounce, while the cheaper monetary metal, also used heavily in solar panels and electronics, rose 1.41% to roughly $66.35 an ounce. Name that second metal.
Answer: SILVER(6 letters)
3 This Issaquah, Washington-based membership warehouse club, famous for its $1.50 hot dog combo and the Kirkland Signature private label, was scheduled to report quarterly earnings after the close on Sept. 23. Name the company.
Answer: COSTCO(6 letters)
4 In options trading, delta tells you how much a contract's price moves when the underlying shifts by a dollar. What single Greek letter names the second-order measure, the rate at which that delta itself changes as the underlying moves?
Answer: GAMMA(5 letters)
The rate at which an option's delta changes as the underlying price moves - the second derivative of option value with respect to price.
5 Since 1950, US stocks have posted their weakest average monthly return in September, while traders also invoke the January effect and "sell in May". What single word names such recurring calendar-linked patterns in returns?
Answer: SEASONALITY(11 letters)
A recurring pattern tied to the time of year rather than to the underlying trend.
1 Shares of this Menlo Park-based social-media company, owner of Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, jumped nearly 12% on Monday, Sept. 21, pacing for its best single session in more than a year. Name the company.
Answer: META(4 letters)
2 S&P Global's flash US composite gauge of private-sector activity rose to 58.4 in September from 56.0 in August, a 62-month high, with hiring the fastest since June 2022. One word completes the name of this survey family: ___ Managers' Index.
Answer: PURCHASING(10 letters)
3 This Michigan-based restaurant operator, the largest franchisee of the Wendy's burger chain with hundreds of locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month amid sluggish same-store sales. Name the company.
Answer: MERITAGE(8 letters)
4 In trading, this is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or equivalent assets in different markets to capture a price discrepancy while carrying no net market exposure. What single word names that practice?
Answer: ARBITRAGE(9 letters)
Profiting from a price difference for the same asset in two markets by buying in one and selling in the other, in principle without taking risk.
5 The third quarter ends Sept. 30, and US-listed companies will soon file a 10-Q of unaudited figures covering only part of the financial year rather than the full twelve months. What one-word adjective describes such part-year reporting?