Delivery

When you deliver something, you either present it from one owner to another, or you take out its liver.

In the financial world, delivery refers to whatever security, commodity, cash, product, or other instrument that is received by the buyer for payment. This could be electronic and virtual, to be delivered electronically to ledger...or physical delivery of a certificate, currency, or actual goods. And even though a physical deliverer may be the vehicle, singing telegrams and strippergrams are not usually considered part of delivery parlance.

Why is this even a Thing? Like...why does it matter? Because in ye olde days when there were markets—and no computers—getting actual legal delivery of title to a property or receipt of a stock purchase or sale was...difficult. Signing had to happen. There was no electronic tracer. So the whole notion of delivery then became a mini-industry unto itself.