to weak and lower prices. Depressed price In the context of stocks, stock whose market price is low in comparison to stocks in its sector. Depression Period when excess aggregate supply overwhelms aggregate demand, resulting in falling prices, unemployment problems, and economic contraction. Deregulation The reduction of government's role in controlling markets, which lead to freer markets, and presumably a more efficient marketplace. Derivative A financial contract whose value is based on, or "derived" from, a traditional security (such as a stock or bond), an asset (such as a commodity), or a market index. Derivative instruments Contracts such as options and futures whose price is derived from the price of an underlying financial asset. Derivative markets Markets for derivative instruments. Derivative security A financial security such as an option or future whose value is derived in part from the value and characteristics of another security, the underlyingasset. Descending tops A chart pattern which in which each successive peak in a security's price is lower than the preceding peak over a period of time. Antithesis of ascending tops. Descriptor A variable describing assets, used as an element of a risk index. For example, a volatility riskindex, distinguishing high volatility assets from low volatility assets, could consist of several descriptors based on short term volatility, long term volatility, systematic and residual volatility, etc. Design risk The risk associated with the impact on project cash flow from deficiencies in design or engineering. Also known as engineering risk. Designated order turnaround system (DOT) Computerized order entry system that allows orders to buy or sell large baskets of stock to be transmitted immediately to the specialist on the exchange, where execution will occur quickly, depending on the basket size. Also used for odd-lot transactions to occur at the prices and quantities available. See: AOS. Desk The New York Federal Reserve Bank's trading desk (or securities department) where all transactions of the Federal Reserve System are executed in the money market or the government securitiesmarket. Detachable warrant A warrant entitles the holder to buy a given number of shares of stock at a stipulated price. A detachable warrant is one that may be sold separately from the package it may have originally been issued with (usually a bond). Determinism Fully ordained in advance. A deterministic chaos system is one that gives random looking results, even though the results are generated from a system of equations. Deterministic models Liability-matching models that assume that the liability payments and the assetcash flows are known with certainty. Related: Stochastic models. Detrend To remove the general drift, tendency, or bent of a set of statistical data as related to time. Often accomplished by regressing a variable or a time index and perhaps the square of the time index and capturing the residuals. A stochastic detrend would be to subtract a moving-average (say for five years) from the value of the variable. Deutsche Borse Germany's major securities market, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Deutsche Terminborse (DTB) Formerly the German financial futures and options market. Merged with the Swiss Options and Financial Futures Exchange (SOFFEX)