Certificates are securities, the price of which depends on the development of their base. That is why they are also called derivatives . There are a variety of underlyings, for example individual stocks, baskets of stocks, commodities, currencies or indices. Legally speaking, certificates are debt instruments of the issuing bank. This means that if the issuer goes bankrupt, you could lose the capital invested. For example, the holders of certificates from the American investment bank Lehman Brothers lost a lot of money when the financial institution went bankrupt in 2008. The certificates are traded on the stock exchange or directly through the provider who issued them. The various products are designed in such a way that they benefit from certain market developments. Depending on the construction, the price may rise as the price of the underlying asset rises, falls, or stagnates. The certificates therefore allow the investor to bet on certain price developments.

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