Cash settlement
Settlement in money: the parties exchange the difference and the asset never changes hands.
How to read the number
Index and currency contracts work this way because the underlying is either indivisible or awkward to deliver, so the whole contract reduces to a transfer of the difference.
When the metric lies
The final price comes from the procedure written into the specification, an average or a fixing, not from the last trade. The result differs from what the order book showed at the close.
Also known as: cash-settled contract