--- title: "Asset Class Ontology" description: "Explore 39 asset-class categories and example usages tracing inflation, banking contagion and tariff repricing across investable market channels." url: "https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes" --- [Home](https://nosible.com/) [Ontologies](https://nosible.com/ontologies) Asset Classes Ontology field guide By NOSIBLE Research Updated 2026-07-18 # Asset Class Ontology Asset Classes separates market narratives into investable exposure channels that can be compared through time. A market shock rarely stays inside one asset class. Equity losses can trigger margin calls. Investors sell bonds to raise cash. Dollar funding tightens. Commodity prices transmit separate growth and supply shocks. A single finance label hides that sequence and its changing transmission channels. World assigns one main asset class and one investable sub-class to relevant events. Researchers can test whether class composition adds information beyond total coverage and contemporaneous returns. This guide provides every definition, World base rates, three normalized market examples and downloadable observations. [[ 1 ]](https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/professional-learning/refresher-readings/2026/alternative-investment-features-methods-and-structures) Categories 39 categories Structure 2 levels World events labelled 10.5% Stable codes Since v2 Release data CC0 On this page [01 Foundations](https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes#foundations) [02 Categories](https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes#vocabulary) [03 Example usages](https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes#trends) [04 Downloads and references](https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes#downloads) Foundations ## Asset Classes identifies market exposure without predicting returns, risk or performance The ontology separates equities, fixed income, commodities, currencies, real assets, alternatives, digital assets, and cash and money markets. Thirty-one sub-classes provide investable detail. Funds and derivatives inherit their underlying exposure instead of forming separate classes, preserving the underlying economic risk. [[ 1 ]](https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/professional-learning/refresher-readings/2026/alternative-investment-features-methods-and-structures) World classifies the asset discussed in an event record. It does not measure holdings, flows, prices or causal exposure. One selected path also compresses multi-asset events. Retain unclassified observations and join independent market data before interpreting a composition change as repricing or allocation. Categories ## Eight asset classes organise 31 sub-classes across investable market exposure types The ontology contains 39 categories. Eight main classes sit above 31 sub-classes. World assigns it to 1,602,795 canonical events, or 10.5% of World V1.2. The explorer exposes every definition, path and corpus count on this page. [[ 1 ]](https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/professional-learning/refresher-readings/2026/alternative-investment-features-methods-and-structures) Search code, label, definition or path 8 shown · 39 total Labelled events **1,602,795** World coverage **10.5%** All World events **15,311,040** 1,602,795 of 15,311,040 World events carry labels from Asset Class Ontology. Select a category to see its count and both relevant shares. Hierarchy main_class / sub_class + Equities Corporate earnings, duration and risk appetite · 2 children + Fixed Income Rates, duration, credit and market functioning · 5 children + Commodities Physical scarcity, demand and inflation transmission · 5 children + Currencies & FX Relative policy, funding and external balances · 3 children + Real Assets Property, infrastructure and physical value · 3 children + Alternative Investments Private-market and non-traditional exposures · 7 children + Digital Assets Crypto market structure and attention cycles · 3 children + Cash & Money Markets Funding, liquidity and short-term rates · 3 children Equities ### Equities Copy link #### Definition Ownership stakes in publicly traded companies, including ordinary shares and equity-linked securities. Potential research use Corporate earnings, duration and risk appetite Code Equities Events with label 253,587 Share of labelled 15.8% Share of World 1.7% **Events with label** is the selected count. **Label share** divides it by 1,602,795 assigned events; **World share** divides it by all 15,311,040 events. #### Representative World V1.2 events One strong classified example per available year, with up to ten years shown. 10 examples 1. 2015-01-08Standard Chartered Cuts 4,000 Jobs, Exits Global Equities BusinessCoverage 95 2. 2016-12-07Asian Shares Rise as Investors Await ECB Response to Italian VoteCoverage 47 3. 2017-03-06Deutsche Bank Shares Plunge, Dragging European Equities LowerCoverage 43 4. 2019-07-25European Equities Fall as Draghi Signals ECB Easing Amid Recession FearsCoverage 28 5. 2020-05-04Asian Equities Plunge as Trump Revives U.S.-China Trade War FearsCoverage 148 6. 2021-10-26Global Equities Rise on Strong Corporate Earnings ReportsCoverage 103 7. 2022-11-22SocGen and Alliance Bernstein Launch Global Equities Joint VentureCoverage 56 8. 2024-03-28Nifty Gains 28 Percent as Indian Equities Close FY24 BullishlyCoverage 62 9. 2025-07-18KuCoin Launches xStocks for Global Tokenized Equities Trading AccessCoverage 149 10. 2026-06-12Binance Launches bStocks Tokenized U.S. Equities With 24/7 TradingCoverage 198 Browse categories to compare definitions, World V1.2 statistics and representative classified events. Example usage 1 of 3 ### Example Usage: Inflation becomes a cross-asset regime as equity, bond, currency and commodity attention roughly doubles Inflation reporting became a synchronized cross-asset regime during the 2022 tightening cycle. Normalized attention to equities rose 116% from its 2021 average, fixed income 92%, currencies 113% and commodities 158%. The Federal Reserve began raising rates in March and delivered its first 75-basis-point increase in June. [[ 2 ]](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20220316a.htm) The ontology shows whether a macro narrative remains confined to one market or spreads across several transmission channels. Researchers can use the four normalized series to define inflation-regime windows, test cross-asset correlations, select hedges and compare whether returns, volatility or flows respond when attention becomes synchronized rather than merely elevated. [[ 1 ]](https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/professional-learning/refresher-readings/2026/alternative-investment-features-methods-and-structures) Equities +116% Fixed income +92% Currencies +113% Commodities +158% **Inflation attention spreads across four investable market channels** Equities Fixed Income Currencies & FX Commodities Monthly category counts divide by all English World events in the same month. The 2021 and 2022 highlights compare annual averages. The cohort requires inflation or monetary-tightening language and an explicit investable-market reference. The chart measures classified attention, not returns, holdings or causal exposure. Example usage 2 of 3 ### Example Usage: Silicon Valley Bank stress reaches venture capital, stablecoins, repo and corporate bonds within fourteen days Silicon Valley Bank closed on 10 March 2023; Signature Bank followed two days later. During the next fourteen days, normalized cohort attention reached 12,912 events per million. Asset subcategories separated the shock into venture-capital, stablecoin, repo and corporate-bond channels rather than one generic banking-crisis label. [[ 3 ]](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html) [[ 4 ]](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23017.html) Venture-capital attention peaked first, followed by stablecoins, repurchase agreements and corporate bonds. The sequence gives researchers testable contagion clocks for private funding, digital-asset liquidity, secured funding and credit. Those clocks can be joined to spreads, flows or volatility without assuming that every market channel repriced simultaneously. [[ 4 ]](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23017.html) Venture capital peak +2,293 per million Stablecoin peak +931 per million Repo peak +637 per million Corporate bonds peak +814 per million Seven-day normalized asset-subcategory attention · per million Venture capital Stablecoins Repo Corporate bonds The fixed English cohort explicitly names Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic or Credit Suisse. Each line pools subcategory counts across the current and prior six days, then divides by all English World events in the same window. The chart measures reporting channels, not actual holdings or contagion. Example usage 3 of 3 ### Example Usage: April tariffs double normalized equity and currency attention while commodity coverage rises only 38% President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on 2 April 2025, then suspended most country-specific rates for 90 days on 9 April. Across matched 28-day windows, normalized equity attention rose from 1,659 to 3,500 events per million. Currency attention rose from 1,352 to 2,879, while commodity attention increased from 3,293 to 4,540. [[ 5 ]](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/) [[ 6 ]](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/) The divergence distinguishes the trade shock's repricing channels. Equities and currencies more than doubled, while commodity attention rose 38%. Researchers can identify when tariff reporting shifts from goods exposure into valuation and foreign-exchange risk, then test sector returns, implied volatility, basis or hedging demand around that transition. [[ 5 ]](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/) Equities +1,841 per million Currencies and FX +1,527 per million Commodities +1,247 per million Seven-day normalized asset-class attention · per million Equities Currencies and FX Commodities The fixed English cohort requires tariff or trade-war language and a United States or major trading-partner reference. Each line pools category counts across the current and prior six days, then divides by all English World events. Highlights compare 5 March–1 April with 2–29 April 2025. Data and sources ## Download Asset Classes and References ### Downloads Download categories and counts as CSV, or the complete machine-readable release as JSON. [**CSV** Definitions and counts Download ↓](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/nodes.csv) [**JSON** Full machine-readable release Download ↓](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/statistics.json) Release details and citation files [Manifest](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/manifest.json) [Release README](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/README.md) [CC0 license and scope](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/LICENSE.md) [Citation file](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/CITATION.cff) [Changelog](https://nosible.com/data/world-v1.2/ontologies/asset-classes/v2/CHANGELOG.md) Need the complete World event schema? [Open the World data dictionary.](https://nosible.com/data-dictionaries#world) ### References 1. [ 1 ][CFA Institute. (2026). Alternative Investment Features, Methods, and Structures. CFA Program Level I curriculum.](https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/professional-learning/refresher-readings/2026/alternative-investment-features-methods-and-structures) 2. [ 2 ][Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. (2022, March 16). Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement.](https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20220316a.htm) 3. [ 3 ][Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (2023). Silicon Valley Bank closure.](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23016.html) 4. [ 4 ][FDIC, Federal Reserve, and Treasury. (2023). Joint statement.](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2023/pr23017.html) 5. [ 5 ][The White House. (2025). Regulating imports with a reciprocal tariff.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/) 6. [ 6 ][The White House. (2025). Modifying reciprocal tariff rates.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-trading-partner-retaliation-and-alignment/) Continue exploring ## Complementary ontologies [237 categories GICS Industry Classification Connect market channels to the sectors and sub-industries carrying the underlying exposure. Explore ontology →](https://nosible.com/ontologies/gics) [416 categories NOSIBLE Event Ontology Identify the corporate event mechanisms behind a changing cross-asset narrative. Explore ontology →](https://nosible.com/ontologies/nosible-events) > Explore 39 asset-class categories and example usages tracing inflation, banking contagion and tariff repricing across investable market channels. **URL:** https://nosible.com/ontologies/asset-classes