A la criee See Auction market. A la criee is an auction system where dealings are conducted by open outcry.
Abandonment Allowing an option to expire unexercised.
Account On the London Stock Exchange, a specified period of time - usually two weeks - in which dealing takes place.
Account day On the London Stock Exchange, the day on which most bargains dealt during a particular account are settled. Account day is normally the second Monday following the end of the account period.
Accrued interest The amount of interest accumulated between the most recent payment and the sale of a fixed interest security. For most bonds, accrued interest must be added to the purchase price, but that amount will be recovered by the purchaser in the next interest payment.
Action French for share.
Action de jouissance Share which grants the right to participate in the net profit of the company without conferring ownership rights. French/Belgian term.
Action ordinaire French ordinary share.
Action privilegiee French for preference share.
ADR See American depositary receipt.
After Hours Dealing On the London Stock Exchange, dealings done after the Mandatory Quote Period. Such dealings are treated as dealings done on the following business day. On SEAQ the mandatory quote period is 08:30-16:30
and on SEAQ International 09:30-16:00.
After Market See Secondary market.
Aktie German for share.
Alpha securities On the London Stock Exchange, SEAQ securities with a Normal Market Size of 1,000 shares or more. See Normal Market Size.
American depositary receipt A receipt or certificate issued by a US Bank that represents a specific number of shares of foreign-based corporations held by a US banking institution in the country of origin on behalf of an investor in the United States of America.
American option An option which may be exercised at any time prior to expiration.
Amtlicher Handel The Official Trade section of German stock exchanges.
Arbitrage The simultaneous purchase on one exchange and sale on another of the same or equivalent financial instruments in order to benefit from price or currency differentials.
Arbitrageurs Those looking for arbitrage opportunities.
Asian option Asian options are based on an average price of a commodity over a period of time, rather than on a single price taken at the end of a period. Asian options are currently available only over-the-counter.
Ask price The price at which a seller has offered to sell a security or commodity.
Association Francaise des Societes de Bourse A professional association which advises members of the French stock exchanges and represents them to outside bodies.
At-the-market See Market order.
At-the-money An option whose strike/exercise price is equal to or near the current price of the underlying instrument.
Auction market A system in which financial instruments are bought and sold through trading on an exchange floor by buyers and sellers competing via open outcry with other buyers and sellers for the best price.
Avoir fiscal The avoir fiscal is a tax credit (on dividends) payable to French holders of French securities. In most cases, foreign holders are granted the avoir fiscal in accordance with tax agreements between France and their own country.
Azione Italian for share.
Azione ordinaria Ordinary share on the Italian stock exchanges.
Azione privilegiata Preference share (Italian stock exchanges).
Azione risparmio Saving share (Italian stock exchanges) normally issued in bearer form and enjoying privileged rights on the distribution of profits. Holders of these shares have no right to vote in shareholder meetings.


Backwardation On futures markets, a market where a commodity is in shortage, causing near contract months to sell at a premium and distant contract months to sell at discount.
Bargain A transaction dealt through the London Stock Exchange which is a contract to buy or sell an agreed quantity of stock at an agreed price.
Basis The difference between the cash price and futures price.
Basis point One per cent of one per cent.
Basis price The-price expressed in terms of yield to maturity or annual rate of return.
Bear An investor who believes that prices are going to fall.
Bear market A prolonged period of generally falling prices.
Bearer security A security whose owner is not registered on the books of the issuer.
Bed and Breakfast Deal Selling shares one day and buying them back the next, for tax purposes at the end of the Financial year.
Beneficial Owner The true owner of a security. The registered holder of the shares may act as a nominee to the true shareholder.
Beta securities On the London Stock Exchange, stocks with a Normal Market Size of less than 2,000 shares. See Normal Market Size.
Bid price The price at which a buyer has offered to purchase a security or commodity.
Big Board A popular term for the New York Stock Exchange.
Block A large amount of shares, normally 10,000 shares or more.
Block trade The purchase or sale of stock in a large quantity, normally 10,000 shares or more.
Block volume The aggregate volume of trades of 10,000 shares or more.
Blue chips Shares with the highest status and quality as investments. Blue chip stocks are normally relatively high priced stocks with a long record of dividend payments.
Bonus Issue See Capitalization Issue.
Book value The value of a financial instrument as shown by the accounting records. The book value is not necessarily the same as the market value.
Borsa Italian for stock exchange.
Bourse French for stock exchange. The word bourse is thought to originate from the town of Bruges in Belgium. In the early thirteenth century, merchants from the main commercial centres, particularly from Genoa and Venice, used to gather in front of the house of the Van der Buerse family in Bruges.
Briefkurs The asked (offered price) on German and Swiss stock exchanges.
Broker An agent, often a member of a stock exchange firm, who executes public orders to buy and sell securities and commodities. For this service a commission is usually charged. Brokers are agents working on commission and
not principals or agents acting on their own account.
Broker-dealer See Dealer.
Bull An investor who has bought stock for a quick profit. Bulls expect that prices will rise.
Bull market A prolonged period of generally rising prices.
Bulldogs Sterling bonds issued in the UK by foreign institutions.
Butterfly spread 1) A futures butterfly spread is a spread trade in which multiple futures months are traded simultaneously at a differential. The trade basically consists of two futures spread transactions with either three or four different futures months at one differential. 2) An options butterfly spread is a spread trade in which multiple options months and strike prices are traded simultaneously at a differential. The trade basically consists of two options spread transactions with either three or four different options months and strikes at one differential.
Buyer/taker The purchaser of an option, whether a call or put option. The buyer may also be referred to as the option holder. Option buyers receive the right, but not the obligation, to enter a futures/securities market position.
Byproducts Products generated from the same raw materials.


Call A period of trading.
Call option A call option confers the right but not the obligation to buy stock, shares or futures at a specified price within a predetermined time period. The buyer (taker) pays the seller (grantor) a premium for this.
Capitalization See Market capitalization.
Capitalization Issue The process whereby money from a company's reserves is converted into issued capital, which is then distributed to shareholders as new shares, in proportion to their original holdings. Also known as a Bonus or Scrip Issue.
Carry The interest cost of financing securities held.
Cash market The market in the actual financial instrument on which a futures or options contract is based.
Certificate of deposit A negotiable certificate issued by a commercial bank as evidence of a deposit with that bank which states the maturity value, maturity rate and interest rate payable. CDs vary in size with maturities ranging from a few weeks to several years. CDs may normally be redeemed before maturity only by sale on the secondary market but may also be redeemed back to issuing bank through payment of a penalty.
CFTC The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US Federal regulatory agency for futures traded on commodity markets.
Clean Price The price of a bond not including the accrued interest element.
Clearing The process of matching, registering and guaranteeing transactions.
Clearing house An exchange-associated, usually independent organization through which all contracts are made, offset and delivered.
Clearing member A member Firm of a clearing house.
Close out A transaction which leaves the trade with a zero net commitment to the market. A purchase if the initial transaction was a sale and vice versa.
Commission The fee that a broker may charge clients for dealing on their behalf.
Commission des Operations de Bourse The Commission des Operations de Bourse (COB) is the French securities market watchdog. The COB holds the status of an autonomous administrative body.
Conseil des Bourses de Valeurs The Conseil des Bourses de Valeurs or French Stock Exchange Council is the supervisory and regulatory authority of the French securities markets.
Consideration On the London Stock Exchange the money value of a transaction (number of shares multiplied by the price).
Consolidated tape The combined tapes of the New York and American Stock Exchanges. Network A covers New York Stock Exchange listed securities, identifying the market where the trade takes place. Network B does the same for American Stock Exchange securities and securities
Contango On the London Stock Exchange a mechanism for detailing settlement of a bargain until the next account day. This mechanism is used when the selling party is unable to deliver the stock for the appropriate account day. The selling party pays an interest premium to the buyer to cover the extended settlement period. On futures markets, a market in which distant months sell at a premium over near months.
Contante price Italian Bond Market cash price.
Contract An agreement to buy or sell a specified amount of a particular commodity or option for a specified month in the future. See Futures contract.
Contract expiration date The date on which a commodity must be delivered to fulfill the terms of the contract. For options, the last day on which the option holder can exercise his right to buy or sell the underlying security.
Contract month The month in which a futures contract matures or becomes deliverable if not liquidated or traded out before the date specified. Conversion premium The amount by which the price of a convertible bond exceeds the market price of the underlying stock.
Convertible bond A bond which confers on the holder the right to exchange the bonds for other securities of the issuing company at a predetermined price and at, or during, determinable dates.
Corporate bond A long-term interest-bearing debt instrument that requires the issuer to pay the purchaser a specified sum of money, usually at specific intervals, and to repay the principal amount of the loan at maturity.
Cote Officielle The market on the Paris Stock Exchange where securities of the largest French issuers (public or private) are traded.
Coupon 1) On bearer stocks, the detachable part of the certificate exchangeable for dividends. 2) Denotes the rate of interest on a fixed interest security.
Coupon value The annual rate of interest of a bond.
Cours On Belgian and French exchanges, the market price of a share.
Cover The total net profit a company has available for distribution as dividend, divided by the amount actually paid gives the number of times that the dividend is covered.
Crack spread A hedge used in the energy futures market to offset the risk of buying (or selling) crude oil with an opposite transaction in the refined products that may be derived from it.
Cross Rates Rates between two currencies, neither of which is the US Dollar.
Crossed market The situation which exists when a broker's bid is higher than the lowest offer of another broker.
Cross-Trade A cross-trade transaction is a transaction where either the buy broker and the sell broker are the same, or the buy broker and the sell broker belong to the same firm.
Crush The meal and oil products resulting from processing Soya beans.
Crush margin The ratio of oil and meal resulting from crushing a given volume of Soya beans.
Crush spread The spread between Soya beans and Soya bean products created by buying Soya bean futures and selling Soya bean oil and Soya bean meal futures.
Cum Latin for 'with' used in the abbreviations Cum Cap, Cum Div, Cum Rights etc to indicate that the buyer of a security is entitled to participate in the forthcoming Capitalization Issue, Dividend or Rights Issue. See also Ex.
Cum all A stock trading with the right to all supplementary advantages attached to the share.
Cum capitalization The purchaser of stock which is cum capitalization is entitled to receive an issue of new shares made fully paid by the capitalization of reserves and given free of charge in proportion to his or her existing holdings.
Cum dividend The purchaser of a stock which is cum dividend is entitled to receive the declared dividend.
Cum rights The purchaser of a stock trading cum rights is entitled to buy shares of a new issue of stock in direct proportion to his or her existing holdings.
Current delivery month The most current calendar month in which a futures contract comes to maturity and becomes deliverable. Also known as the spot month.
CUSIP code The CUSIP numbering system is the standard method for identifying securities throughout the US financial industry. The CUSIP number is a nine-digit alphanumeric number which is permanently allocated to each issue and identifying that single issue and no other issue. CUSIP numbers are also assigned to most Canadian securities (exceptions being issues of purely domestic interest such as municipal debt securities. Such securities are issued CUSIP compatible codes by the Canadian Depository for Securities Ltd.).


Daily Official List The London Stock Exchange's Daily Official List is the list of listed securities and the prices of transactions published each day.
Day trader Speculators who take positions in commodities which are then liquidated prior to the close of the same trading day.
Dealer An individual or firm acting as a principal, rather than as an agent, in the purchase and/or sale of securities. Dealers trade for their own account and risk.
Debenture A non-secured loan raised by a company, paying a fixed rate of interest.
Declaration date The latest day or time by which the buyer of an option must indicate to the seller his intention to exercise the option.
Deferred shares Stocks whose dividends are not paid until the expiration of a stated date, or until a specified event, such as the company's profitability reaching a certain level, has taken place.
Delivery The settlement of a futures contract by receipt or tender of a financial instrument.
Delivery month The calendar month in which a futures contract comes to maturity and becomes deliverable.
Delta The change in the value of the option premium relative to the instantaneous change in the value of the underlying instrument, expressed as a coefficient.
Déport A discount on carrying over a position on a French equity from one settlement period to next.
Depository trust company In the USA a central securities repository, owned by banks and brokerage houses, where stock and bond certificates are exchanged.
Depth of market A measure of how much a price has to move in order to execute larger than normal transactions. The smaller the price movement and the larger the transaction, the deeper the market.
Deutsche Terminbörse (DTB) The German options and futures exchange, a fully computerized system with integrated trading and clearing.
Dirty prices Bond prices which include the accrued interest.
Discount When the market price of a newly issued security is lower than the issue price.
Distribution date See Payment date.
Dividend The distribution of (post-tax) earnings to shareholders declared by the board of directors of a corporation to be paid per share to the shareholders. Dividends are usually paid in cash, but can be paid in stock.
Down tick The sale of a security at a price lower than the previous one.
Durante price Fluctuation price established during trading sessions other than the official opening and closing dealings on Italian exchanges.


Earnings per share The total net profit of a company per share.
Equity The ordinary shares of companies. The ownership interest in a company of holders of its common and preferred stock.
Equity warrant bonds See Subscription warrant Eurobonds A long-term loan issued in a currency other than that of the country or market in which it is issued. Interest is paid without the deduction of tax.
Eurodollars US dollars deposited in a bank (US or non US) located outside the United States of America.
European option An option that can be exercised only on its expiration date rather than before that date.
Ex The opposite of Cum, and used to indicate that the buyer is not entitled to participate in whatever forthcoming event is specified. Ex Cap, Ex Dividend, Ex Rights etc.
Ex all The sale of a security without dividends, rights, warrants or other supplementary privileges associated with that security.
Ex capitalization A stock or share sold without the right to the capitalization issue which has been announced.
Ex dividend A stock or share sold without the right to the recently declared dividend. A stock quoted ex dividend has the amount of the dividend which is about to be paid deducted from the price.
Ex dividend date The date on which a stock goes ex dividend. After this date the right to receive a current dividend will not automatically transfer from the seller of the stock to the buyer.
Ex rights Stock sold without the right to participate in an offer of securities to existing shareholders by a company in proportion to their existing holdings.
Ex warrants Stock sold with the buyer no longer entitled to the warrants formerly attached to the stock.
Exercise notice The formal notification that the holder of a call (or put) option wishes to buy (or sell) the underlying security at the exercise price.
Exercise price See Strike price.
Exercise value For a call option, this is the amount by which the strike price is below the underlying investment; for a put option, it is the amount by which the strike price is above the underlying investment.
Expiration date 1) Options - the last date after which the option can no longer be exercised. 2) Bonds - the date on which a bond matures.
Expiration month The month in which an option expires.
Extrinsic value See Time value.