Decoupling

A euphemistic term for breaking up with someone, as in “I’ve met someone new in my spinning class and I think we should decouple.”

In finance, it’s a situation where two types of assets that normally move together stop moving together. For instance, the value of currency usually rises when that country’s interest rates rise.

So if rates in the U.S. go up, the value of the dollar will go up as well, as foreign investors move into dollar-denominated opportunities in order to take advantage of higher yields.

However, in an event where the two move in opposite directions (rates rise, dollar falls), these indicators are said to have decoupled. When they move in the same direction, not much explanation is necessary; they always move in the same direction. But when they decouple, analysts know something weird is going on and they have to dig deeper to figure out why.

It’s not worth mentioning it when you see Chewbacca and Han Solo together. They are always together. But if you just see Chewy...if he and Han are decoupled...your first question will probably be “Whoa...where’s Han?”

You may not have seen the movie, so we won't ruin it for you.