Security types

The Caravan universe holds several kinds of instrument. Every tradable one carries a security_type, which determines how it is ordered and settled. This is the conceptual companion to the Asset classes guide.

Equities

A share in a listed company. Trades in whole shares within a ±20% price band, on the EGX Sun–Thu 10:00–14:30 session, settling T+2. Tagged security_type=equity.

ETFs

An exchange-traded fund — a single listed security that holds a basket (often tracking an index). To the order machinery an ETF behaves exactly like a share: same order path, bands, ticks, and settlement. Tagged security_type=etf. The tag is the only thing that distinguishes it from an equity in the API.

Bonds

A debt instrument — government, treasury bill, or corporate — that pays back a face value at maturity and (usually) periodic coupons in between. Bonds quote a clean price as a percent of par, and the price you actually pay (the dirty price) adds accrued interest. Tagged security_type=bond. See Clean & dirty price and Coupons & yield.

Sukuk

A shariah-compliant fixed-income instrument. Economically it behaves like a bond in the API — same clean/dirty mechanics — but it is structured to be shariah-compliant and carries shariah_compliant=true. Tagged security_type=sukuk. Sukuk is not a separate asset class so much as a screened, shariah-structured bond.

Funds

Open-ended funds (e.g. money-market funds) priced at their net asset value (NAV) rather than on an order book. You subscribe by amount or redeem by units, and the order prices at the NAV in effect at execution. Funds live on a separate rail (/v1/funds), not in /v1/instruments.

Indices

A benchmark — a published level and a list of constituents. An index is not an instrument: you cannot trade it, and it never appears in /v1/instruments. It exists to answer "where is the market today?" To track an index you would hold an index-tracking ETF or its constituents. See Indices.

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The tag is the contract. One list (/v1/instruments), one alphabetical order, one security_type tag per row. The class decides the mechanics; it never decides ordering or merit — see Neutrality by construction.