What is "swap"

Swap \Swap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Swapped; p. pr. & vb. n. Swapping.] [OE. swappen to strike; cf. E. to strike a bargain; perh. akin to E. sweep. Cf. Swap a blow, Swap, v. i.] [Written also swop.]

1. To strike; -- with off. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] ``Swap off his head!''
   --Chaucer.

2. To exchange (usually two things of the same kind); to swop. [Colloq.]
   --Miss Edgeworth.

Swap \Swap\, v. i. [Cf. Swap, v. t.]

1. To fall or descend; to rush hastily or violently.
   --C. Richardson (Dict.).

   All suddenly she swapt adown to ground.
   --Chaucer.

2. To beat the air, or ply the wings, with a sweeping motion or noise; to flap.

Swap \Swap\, n. [Cf. G. schwapp, n., a slap, swap, schwapp, schwapps, interj., slap! smack! and E. swap, v.t.]

1. A blow; a stroke. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

2. An exchange; a barter. [Colloq.]
   --Sir W. Scott.

Swap \Swap\, adv. [See Swap, n.] Hastily. [Prov. Eng.]

c.1200, "to strike, strike the hands together," of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of the sound of hitting or slapping. The sense of "to exchange, barter, trade" is first recorded 1590s, possibly from the notion of slapping hands together as a sign of agreement in bargaining (as in strike a bargain). Related: Swapped; swapping. The noun in this sense is attested from 1620s; earlier "a striking, an act of striking" (mid-13c.). Swap-meet attested from 1968, American English.

n. 1 An exchange of two comparable things. 2 (context finance English) A financial derivative in which two parties agree to exchange one stream of cashflow against another stream. 3 (context obsolete UK dialect English) A blow; a stroke. 4 (context computing informal uncountable English) Space available in a swap file for use as auxiliary memory. vb. 1 To exchange or give (something) in an exchange (for something else). 2 (label en obsolete) To strike, hit.

1. n. an equal exchange; "we had no money so we had to live by barter" [syn: barter, swop, trade]

2. [also: swops, swopping, swopped, swapping, swapped]

1. v. exchange or give (something) in exchange for [syn: trade, swop, switch]

2. move (a piece of a program) into memory, in computer science

3. [also: swops, swopping, swopped, swapping, swapped]

Swåp are an Anglo- Swedish band that produce a musical fusion of traditional nordic music and celtic music.

A swap is a derivative in which two counterparties exchange cash flows of one party's financial instrument for those of the other party's financial instrument. The benefits in question depend on the type of financial instruments involved. For example, in the case of a swap involving two bonds, the benefits in question can be the periodic interest ( coupon) payments associated with such bonds. Specifically, two counterparties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another stream. These streams are called the legs of the swap. The swap agreement defines the dates when the cash flows are to be paid and the way they are accrued and calculated. Usually at the time when the contract is initiated, at least one of these series of cash flows is determined by an uncertain variable such as a floating interest rate, foreign exchange rate, equity price, or commodity price.

The cash flows are calculated over a notional principal amount. Contrary to a future, a forward or an option, the notional amount is usually not exchanged between counterparties. Consequently, swaps can be in cash or collateral.

Swaps can be used to hedge certain risks such as interest rate risk, or to speculate on changes in the expected direction of underlying prices.

Swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement. Today, swaps are among the most heavily traded financial contracts in the world: the total amount of interest rates and currency swaps outstanding is more than $348 trillion in 2010, according to Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

In computer programming, the act of swapping two variables refers to mutually exchanging the values of the variables. Usually, this is done with the data in memory. For example, in a program, two variables may be defined thus (in pseudocode):

(In many programming languages where the swap function is built-in; in C++, overloads are provided allowing std::swap to swap some large structures in O(1) time.) After swap is performed, x will contain the value 0 and y will contain 1; their values have been exchanged. Of course, this operation may be generalized to other types of values, such as strings, aggregated data types and comparison sorts, utilize swaps to change the positions of data.

The "Sun Watcher using Active Pixel System Detector and Image Processing" (SWAP) telescope is a compact EUV imager on board the PROBA2 mission that will observe the Sun in extreme ultraviolet (EUV). SWAP will provide images of the solar corona at a temperature of roughly 1 million degrees. This instrument was built upon the heritage of the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope ( EIT) which monitors the solar corona since 1996.

SWAP will continue the systematic CME ( coronal mass ejection) watch program at an improved image cadence (typically 1 image every minute). With this higher cadence, SWAP will monitor events in the low solar corona that might be relevant for space weather. These events include EIT waves (global waves propagating across the solar disc from the CME eruption site), EUV dimming regions (transient coronal holes from where the CME has lifted off) and filament instabilities (a specific type of flickering during the rise of a filament). SWAP will also take advantage of offpointings provided by the agility featured of PROBA2 platform to follows coronal mass ejections.

SWAP was built at the Centre Spatial de Liege and will be operated from the PROBA-2 Science Center at the Royal Observatory of Belgium.