Glossary of trading terms

Describing unforgiving market conditions that can be violent and quick.

Measures the average wage including/excluding bonuses paid to employees. This is measured quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from the previous year.

The UK claimant count records the number of citizens aged 19 to 64 claiming unemployment benefits in the UK. The claimant count is seen as an indicator of labor market activity and economic health within the UK.

The claimant count is often lower than total unemployment data as not everyone who is unemployed is receiving benefits.

The UK Halifax house price index measures UK house prices to give an indication of trends in the UK real estate sector. The index is limited to properties financed by the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), but it is seen as the leading index in the sector.

Measures the change in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits over the previous month.

Measures the change in total labour cost expended in the production of one unit of output.

UK Oil is another name for Brent Crude Oil. Brent Crude is the leading benchmark for global oil prices, akin to two-thirds of all oil pricing. Brent Crude oil is produced near the Baltic Sea and is typically refined in Northern Europe.

OPEC, a group of the 13 most powerful oil-rich countries, use Brent Crude as their pricing benchmark.

The UK Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the change in the price of goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers. The PPI is also used to measure changes in wholesale inflation experienced by manufacturers, which can be extrapolated to indicate changes in consumer inflation.

A name for the FTSE 100 index.

The actual traded market from where the price of a product is derived.

The unemployment rate is used to measure the number of people in a country or sector who do not have a job but are actively seeking one. The unemployment rate is measured as a percentage of the labor force, which consist of all people both employed and unemployed.

The unemployment rate is often viewed as a measure of the country’s spare labor force and unused resources. It can be affected by seasonal changes in economic activity such as harvesting and tourism or anomalies like a recession.

Polls 500 US households each month. The report is issued in a preliminary version mid-month and a final version at the end of the month. Questions revolve around individuals’ attitudes about the US economy. Consumer sentiment is viewed as a proxy for the strength of consumer spending.

The theoretical gain or loss on open positions valued at current market rates, as determined by the broker in its sole discretion. Unrealised gains/losses become profits/losses when the position is closed.

An uptick is any new price quote that is higher than the preceding quote. An asset experiences an uptick only when enough buy orders are placed to drive the price of the asset higher. Conversely, a downtick is a lower quote.

Uptick is used to express several different terms in trading.

• Zero upticks – describes when a trade is executed at a price that is the same as the trade immediately preceding it
• Uptick volume – denotes the number of trades enacted when the asset’s price is rising
• Uptick rule – is an act by the US Security and Exchange Commission that required short sells to only be made on an uptick so short sellers would not put too much pressure on the asset by selling it while on a downtick

In the US, a regulation whereby a security may not be sold short unless the last trade prior to the short sale was at a price lower than the price at which the short sale is executed.

US Oil is another name for West Texas Intermediary (WTI) Crude Oil. WTI is the benchmark for Atlantic basin crude oils because of its location in the Gulf coast and central US. The US oil is traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).

WTI oil is characterized as a light, sweet crude oil with a higher sulfur concentration compared to Brent Crude, the other benchmark oil.

The US prime rate is the short-term interest rate charged by US banks to loan money to their most trusted customers. The US prime rate is published as an average by the Wall Street Journal when 23 of the 30 largest US banks change their prime rates.

These prime rates are a baseline at which individual banks set their consumer interest rates like mortgage and credit card rates.