The sale of goods and/or services over the internet. Customers must enter and submit their credit card details online; the sale will often proceed without the retailer and customer ever having personal contact. Excluded from this definition is the practice of retailing through a central web site operated by another party, either a franchise head office or an external company, such as Interflora. It should be noted that the term ‘online trading’ does not refer to buying or selling shares over the internet. It also does not refer to accepting credit card details via email.

If you trade online, you use a computer and an Internet connection to place your buy and sell orders. Some online traders are day traders, buying securities and selling them within a few hours-or less-to take advantage of price changes as they occur. Others use online trading to place orders outside of normal trading hours. While online trading may become the norm in the future, especially as after-hours trading and electronic communications networks (ECNs) gain popularity, there are a number of issues to be resolved.

Assets are rights or other access to future economic benefits controlled by an entity as a result of past transactions or events. In most financial statements, assets are divided into two categories - current and long-term (or liquid and fixed). Current assets are expected to be converted into cash or used up within one year. For Vodafone, these are principally amounts which we have billed our customers but not yet received, and short-term investments. Long-term or fixed assets include property, plant and equipment, long-term investments and intangible assets, such as goodwill and licences.

Everything a corporation owns or that is due to it: cash, investments, money due it, materials and inventories, which are called current assets; buildings and machinery, which are known as fixed assets; and patents and goodwill, called intangible assets

Everything that a person or company owns or has a right to, from which a benefit can derive. Net assets are assets in excess of liabilities. Liquid assets are assets either in the form of cash or readily convertible into cash.