Trading, clearing and settlement are the three stages that turn an agreed trade into a completed exchange of assets for cash: an order is matched (trading), a central counterparty steps in and nets the obligations (clearing), and the securities and money finally change hands on the settlement date (settlement).
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Must-know for the exam
✓The trade lifecycle has three stages: execution (matching), clearing (netting and guaranteeing), and settlement (delivery of securities versus payment of cash).
✓A MARKET order gives certainty of execution but not price; a LIMIT order gives certainty of price (no worse than the limit) but may not fill.
✓BID = highest price a buyer will pay; OFFER/ASK = lowest price a seller will accept. The bid–offer spread is an implicit transaction cost; a tight spread signals liquidity.
✓An exchange provides price discovery, liquidity, standardisation and transparency, but it does not itself guarantee settlement.
✓A clearing house acts as a CENTRAL COUNTERPARTY (CCP): via NOVATION it becomes the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer.
✓Novation replaces counterparty credit risk between traders with exposure to the CCP, and enables multilateral NETTING of obligations.
✓CCPs manage risk with margin, a default/guarantee fund and their own capital, so one member's default does not spread to others.
✓Initial margin covers potential future exposure; variation margin is exchanged as positions are marked to market; a shortfall triggers a margin call.
✓A central depository (CSD) holds securities in electronic book-entry form and settles by transferring entries between accounts, enabling delivery versus payment (DvP).
✓In Singapore, SGX is the exchange and The Central Depository (CDP) is the depository/clearing house for SGX-listed securities.
✓Settlement cycle = T+n business days between trade date and settlement; cycles have shortened over time (T+3 → T+2, some markets moving to T+1) to cut outstanding risk.
✓DvP means the securities leg and the cash leg settle simultaneously, eliminating principal (delivery-vs-payment) risk.
✓Exchange-traded instruments are standardised, centrally cleared, netted and margined with low counterparty risk; OTC trades are bilateral, customisable and carry direct counterparty risk.
✓Post-2008 reforms pushed standardised OTC derivatives into central clearing and mandated margining/reporting to reduce systemic counterparty risk.
The trade lifecycle: execution, clearing, settlement
Every securities or derivatives transaction moves through three distinct stages, and it is important not to conflate them:
•EXECUTION (trading): a buy order and a sell order are matched at an agreed price, creating a binding trade. This happens on an exchange or another trading venue.
•CLEARING: after matching, the obligations of each side are confirmed, netted and guaranteed. A clearing house calculates who owes what (securities and cash) and manages the risk until settlement.
•SETTLEMENT: on the settlement date the securities are delivered to the buyer and the cash is paid to the seller, discharging the obligation. This is 'delivery versus payment' (DvP) — the two legs occur simultaneously so neither side is left exposed.
The gap between trade date (T) and settlement date exists because confirming, netting and moving assets and money between custodians and banks takes time. During that gap the parties carry counterparty and market risk, which is exactly what clearing infrastructure is designed to manage.
Order types: market and limit
When an investor places an order, the order type controls the trade-off between CERTAINTY OF EXECUTION and CERTAINTY OF PRICE.
•A MARKET ORDER executes immediately at the best price currently available in the market. It prioritises speed and certainty of getting filled, but the exact fill price is not guaranteed — in a fast or thin market it may execute worse than the last-seen price (slippage).
•A LIMIT ORDER sets a maximum price to pay (buy) or a minimum price to accept (sell). It guarantees the price will be no worse than the limit, but it may only partially fill or not fill at all if the market never reaches the limit.
Common variations include the STOP (stop-loss) order, which becomes a market order once a trigger price is reached (used to cap losses or protect gains), and time-in-force conditions such as day orders (expire at the close) or good-till-cancelled (GTC) orders.
Unfilled limit orders rest in the exchange's ORDER BOOK, which lists the queue of bids (buy orders) and offers (sell orders) at each price level and provides the market's visible depth.
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