🖊️Introduction

Horizon is a synthetic trading exchange designed to allow users to speculate on the price movements of various assets without owning the underlying assets themselves. Instead of buying or selling physical or digital assets, users enter into contracts that track asset prices, enabling exposure to markets like stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, or indices.

The exchange operates through a system of smart contracts (or centralized clearing, depending on implementation) that handle trade execution, collateral, and settlement. Prices are typically derived from the average of external market data sources. Users provide collateral to open positions and are subject to margin requirements and liquidations if their positions move against them.

The goal of this exchange is to offer transparent, efficient, and flexible access to global markets without requiring custody of actual assets, making it accessible to a wider range of participants, and allowing the eventual fractional ownership of such.