Glossary

AFX
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Agence France-Presse (AFP). Provides global news coverage of financial markets, companies and economies to professional and private investor communities.

Ask
The price a seller is willing to accept for the security. Sometimes referred to as the offer price.

Bid
The quoted bid is the price at which a Market Maker is willing to buy a security.

Bollinger Bands
Bands which plot two standard deviations away from a simple moving average. As standard deviation is a measure of volatility, Bollinger Bands adjust themselves to the market conditions. When the markets become more volatile they widen and during less volatile periods they contract.

Broadcast
Data supplied as a non-stop stream straight to the client.

Broker (or Stockbroker)
A trader who deals in stocks on behalf of a client. A broker may act in a discretionary, advisory or execution capacity for his client.

Chaikins Oscillator
An oscillator created by subtracting a 10 day exponential moving average from a 3 day exponential moving average of the accumulation distribution line.

Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
The oldest commodity exchange in the US, established in 1886. The CBOT lists many agricultural commodity futures such as corn, oats and soybeans among other financial instruments.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
Chicago Mercantile Exchange is an international marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers of derivatives products. The Exchange offers futures and options on futures in four basic product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities

Close
The mid price of a security at the end of a trading session. Dependent on whether the stock is a SETS stock or not, the mid price will reflect the average of bid-offer or the price of LAT (last automated trade).

Corporate
The most common form of business organisation, in which the total worth of the organisation is divided into shares of stock, each share representing a unit of ownership. A corporation is ongoing and the owners face only limited liability.

CSV
Comma Separated Value. A file format in which text is displayed unformatted but field separated to simplify import into applications.

Datafeed
The supply of information, typically supplied real time, via a continuous feed.

DAX
German stock exchange (or Deutsche Börse) Blue Chip Index listing the 30 major German companies.

DECNet
Networking standard used on VAX computers.

Dow Jones
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

Equities
Physical investments. Often used instead of the more accurate term equity shares to describe the risk capital of a company (shares).

EMA
Exponential moving average. EMAs are calculated by applying a percentage of today's closing price to yesterday's moving average value.

FTSE
Financial Times Stock Exchange. The FTSE is one of the world's leading index calculation specialists and provides the standard compilation of UK indices.

FTSE 100
Top 100 UK stocks.

FTSE 250
Top 250 UK stocks.

FTSE 350
Top 350 UK stocks.

FTSE AIM
Alternative Investment Market. Part of the LSE regulated equities market designed for smaller/younger growing companies.

FTSE techMark
UK technology stocks index.

Futures
A financial contract that encompasses the sale of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery, usually on a commodity exchange. Futures contracts try to "bet" what the value of an index or commodity will be at some date in the future.

GDRs
Global Depositary Receipt. A bank issued certificate in more than one country for shares in a foreign company. The shares are held by a foreign branch of an international branch. The shares trade as domestic shares but are offered for sale globally through the various bank branches.

Hang Seng
An index of leading stocks on the Hong Kong stock market.

Historic prices
Generic term for any prices from yesterday or before.

Indices
A statistical measure of the changes in a portfolio of stocks representing a portion of the overall market.

IP
Internet Protocol. IP specifies the format of data packets and the addressing pattern and, when combined with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), allows a connection between a source and destination.

ISDN
Integrated Service Digital Network. Faster type of telephone line than standard, using digital technology for connection speeds up to 128kb/s

ISIN
A code that uniquely identifies a specific securities issue.

Java
A high-level platform independent programming language used widely in Internet applications.

LAN
Local Area Network.

LAT
Last Automated Trade. On SETS stocks, the computerised trading system, the LAT is the price of the last trade that went through the system automatically.

Leased line
An 'always on' point to point communications line leased from a telecoms service provider.

Level 1 data
A trading service consisting of real-time bid/ask quotes for securities trading.

Level 2 data
A trading service consisting of real-time access to the quotations of individual market makers registered in every listed security as well as market makers' quotes.

Level 3 data
A trading service consisting of everything in Level 2 plus the ability to enter quotes, execute orders, and send information.

LIFFE
London International Futures and Finance Exchange. Exchange for futures and options.

Linux
An open source implementation of UNIX that has become popular due to its free availability and platform flexibility.

LMIL
London Market Information Link. The LSE's data feed for market makers and brokers.

Low
The lowest price a security or commodity reached in a certain period of time, usually a single trading session.

LSE
London Stock Exchange.

MACD
The "MACD" is a trend following momentum indicator that shows the relationship between two moving averages of prices. To calculate the MACD, subtract the 26-day EMA from a 12-day EMA. A 9-day dotted EMA of the MACD called the signal line is then plotted on top of the MACD.

Market maker
A dealer on the LSE who acts as a wholesaler to brokers in shares for which he is registered to trade.

Market reference data
Reference data produced by the LSE which contains specific market related stock details.

Mid
Mid price is typically the average of the bid and ask prices for a stock. For SETS traded stocks, the mid price is usually the price of the LAT.

Momentum
The perceived strength behind a price movement.

Moving average period
Frequently used in technical analysis, a moving average is an indicator that shows the average value of a security's price over a period of time. When calculating, you need to specify the time span (such as 200 days).

NASDAQ
NASDAQ is the world's largest electronic, screen-based equity securities market and the largest equity securities market in the world based on share volume.

Nikkei 50
The leading and most respected index of Japanese stocks.

NMS
The Normal Market Size for a stock. The volume of shares traded for a stock, beyond which is considered a significant trade.

NYSE
New York Stock Exchange.

ODBC
Open Database Connectivity. A standard method of sharing data between databases and other programs.

On balance volume (OBV)
A method used in technical analysis to detect momentum, the calculation relates volume to price change. OBV provides a running total of volume and show if this volume is flowing in or out.

Options
A privilege sold by one party to another that offers the buyer the right to buy (call) or sell (put) a security at an agreed-upon price during a certain period of time or on a specific date.

Paris CAC40
The top 40 stocks quoted on the Paris Bourse.

Real time
Constant updating of data allowing changes to be immediately available for viewing and acting upon.

RNS
Regulatory News Service. The company news service from the London Stock Exchange.

RSP
Retail Service Provider. An exchange member firm which is obliged to offer to buy and sell securities in which it is registered.

S&P 500
Standard and Poor's index of the top 500 companies quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.

Security
A financial asset including any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement or in a firm.

SEAQ
Stock Exchange Automated Quotation System. A computerised system on the LSE that constantly updates data on UK securities. Stocks traded using this method are referred to as being traded on the quote book and are smaller than those traded using SETS.

SEDOL
A code that identifies a specific securities issue. This is a component of the ISIN.

SETS
Stock Exchange Electronic Trading System. An automated trading system introduced onto the LSE in 1997 that matches buyers and sellers without the need for physical mediation.

SQL
Structured Query Language. A standardised query language for requesting data from a database.

Standard & Poor's
A company that rates stocks and corporate and municipal bonds according to risk profiles and that produces and tracks the S&P indices. S&P also publishes a variety of financial and investment reports.

Stochastic Oscillator
The Stochastic Oscillator compares where a security's price closed relative to its trading range over the last specified time periods.

TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts on the Internet.

TIDM
Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonic. Old term for stock code.

Tradepoint
An investment exchange established in 1995 as a rival to the London Stock Exchange. Uses an electronic order-driven matching system.

UDP/IP
User Datagram Protocol. A connectionless protocol used primarily for broadcasting messages over a network.

UNIX
A portable, flexible and powerful workstation operating system often used in enterprise network environments.

VWAPs
Volume Weighted Average Prices. A trading benchmark calculated by adding up the value traded for every transaction (price multiplied by shares traded) and then divide by the total shares traded for the day.

Williams %R
A technical analysis momentum indicator which measures overbought and oversold levels.

X.25
Outmoded networking standard used by mini/mainframe computers.

Xetra
Subset of the Deutsche Börse stock exchange stocks.

XML
Extensible Markup Language. A markup language designed especially for data displayed in web documents that allows developers to create tags by which that data is transmitted and interpreted between applications.