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Put up to four markets on the same ruler. The shapes do most of the explaining.
| Interest rate swaps | Aluminium | |
|---|---|---|
| Exit difficulty | 1 | 2 |
| Volatility | 3 | 3 |
| Leverage | 4 | 4 |
| Carry cost | 2 | 3 |
| Fraud risk | 2 | 2 |
| Protection gap | 3 | 3 |
| Barrier to entry | 5 | 4 |
| Expertise needed | 5 | 4 |
| Difficulty | 53 Tough | 53 Tough |
| In a sentence | An exchange of fixed payments for floating ones, invisible to the public and one of the largest markets on earth by notional value. | Effectively solidified electricity: light, abundant, and priced mostly by the cost of the power used to smelt it. |
| Unit | Notional principal, never exchanged | Metric tonne |
| Smallest realistic trade | Institutional; typically millions | LME lot of 25 tonnes |
| Settlement | Periodic net payments, centrally cleared for standard contracts | LME prompt dates |
The fingerprint measures how demanding a market is to take part in. It is not a rating or a recommendation.