Glossary

It is the currency code for  United Arab Emirates Dirham

Ask price (or offer) it is the price at which the market is prepared to sell a financial product. It is the opposite of Bid price.  In the forex market it is the price at which an investor could buy the base currency (the one on the left in a currency pair). If EUR/USD is traded at 1.0922/1.0923 this mean you can buy  one EUR for 1.0923 USD.

It is the currency code for the Australian Dollar

It is used to describe a market on a sustained downward trajectory. It is the opposite of a bull market.

Bid Price is the price at which the market is prepared to buy a product. It is the opposite of Ask. It represents the price at which a trader could sell the base currency (the one on the left in a currency pair). If EUR/USD is traded at 1.0922/1.0923 this mean you can sell one EUR for 1.0922 USD.

Acronym for “Bank for International Settlements”. It is located in Basel, Switzerland, and it is called “the central bank for central banks”. The BIS often acts as the market intermediary between national central banks and the market. 

Bank of England. Founded in 1694, it is also called The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, from the name of the street (in the heart of the City) where the bank has stood since 1734.

Bank of Japan. Established in 1882, it is the central bank for the yen and Japan. It is also called Nichigin and the headquarters is in Chuo City, Tokyo.

Bollinger Bands ® are a popular volatility indicator developed by the technical trader John Bollinger in the 1980s. Bollinger Bands are volatility bands placed above and below a moving average. The bands naturally expand when volatility increases and narrow when volatility declines.

Brent Crude or Brent blend is one the three major oil benchmarks used in trading contracts. It refers to the oil produced in four different fields in the North Sea: Brent, Oseberg, Forties and Ekofisk. The supply is water-borne, making it not difficult to transport to other regions. It is also ideal for the refining of diesel fuel and gasoline and other products.

It is referred to a market or a financial instrument on an upward trend. The opposite is bear market

It is the currency code for Canadian Dollar

Contract for difference is an arrangement between two parties, stipulating that the seller will pay to the buyer the difference between the buying price and the price which the trade will be closed (if the difference is positive), while the buyer will pay it to the seller if the difference is negative. It could be related to a specific share, index, currency or commodity. It is a particular type of OTC derivative that permit to speculate on financial markets movements, using the leverage. It provide to the owner all the benefit (and the risks) of owning the underlying instrument without actually owning it.

It is the currency code for the Swiss Franc

It is the currency code for the Chinese Renminbi. Literally means "people's currency". The distinction between Renmbinbi and Yuan is similar to the one between sterling and pound (the national currency and its primary unit).

Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (usually know by its acronym CONSOB). It was formed in 1974, the headquarters is in Rome and it is the Italian government authority responsible for regulating the national financial markets, including the Italian stock exchange (Borsa Italiana)

Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission

European Central Bank. It is the central bank for the euro and administers the monetary policy of the eurozone. The headquarters is in Frankfurt.

It is the currency code for the Euro. Its symbol is €.

Is the acronym for Financial Conduct Authority. It is the conduct regulator for 56,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and the prudential regulator for over 24,000 of those firms. It is the successor to the FSA, or Financial Services Authority.

The FOMC, or Federal Open Market Committee, is the monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve, the US Central Bank. It is composed by twelve members: 7 members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and 4 of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.

It is the "over the counter" market where the currencies are traded. It is the most liquid and the biggest market in the world, with a turnover exceeding $ 5.000 billion per day. It is open 24h/5days per week, starting from  Sunday evening till Friday evening.

It is the currency code for British Pound, also called the pound or the sterling. Its symbol it is £.

Gross domestic product. It represents the total value of the goods and services produced over a specified period and it is one of the most important indicators of the health and the size of a country’s economy. It is usually expressed as a comparison with the previous period (usually quarter or year).

It is called hedge an investment done in order to reduce the risk of adverse movements of another asset. In other words, it is an investment negatively correlated to the vulnerable asset. It could reduce losses, but it generally also limits the profits.

 It is the currency code for the Hungarian Forint.

It is the currency code for  Indian Rupiee

 It is the currency code for Japanese Yen. The symbol of the nipponic currency is ¥.

It stands for the multiplication factor of equity relative to the possible maximum position size.  It permits to the investors to trade on a much bigger sum than the margin deposited, giving them the chance to proportionally increase their profits or their losses.

It represents the amount of equity required to hold an open position.

It is the currency code for  Mexico Peso

It is the currency code for the Norway Krone.

It is the currency code for New Zealand Dollar. A slang term for this currency is "kiwi".

"Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries". It was founded in 1960 in Baghdad, its current headquarter is in Vienna and it is an association of countries with a substantial net export of crude petroleum. Its stated mission is "to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry."

It has 14 members: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela.   

Is the acronym for "over the counter" and refers to all the trades not made in formal exchanges. The OTC is a decentralized market, without a physical location. OTC  markets are mainly used to trade bonds, currencies and other derivatives financial instruments but could also be used to trade equities.

It is generally represented by a digit added or subtracted to the fourth decimal place (the second one in the pair including the yen). It was usually referred as the smallest unit price for any foreign currency, even if now many brokers are offering to the traders the chance to go to the more accurate price to pip's decimal.

It is the currency code for the Polish Zloty.

A resistance level is the opposite of a support, and it is an area where the upward movement could be expected to find more difficulties to continue. Sellers could be more active and the possibility of seeing a bounce down are generally higher. In case a resistance is broker, prices could try to continue their positive movement until meeting the following resistance.

It is the currency code for the Russian Ruble.

It is the currency code for the Saudi Arabian Riyal

It is the currency code for the Singapore Dollar.

The Swiss National Bank conducts the country’s monetary policy as an independent central bank. Its primary goal should be “to ensure price stability, while taking due account economic developments”. It was strongly criticised for the surprisingly way used to remove the PEG on the EUR/CHF on the 15^thJanuary 2015.

It is the current market price for immediate exchange at anyexact given time. The settlement of the spot transactions generally occurs within two working days.

It is the difference between the buying price (bid) and the selling price (offer) for a financial instrument.

It is an area where the prices tend to find support or even to rebound. Generally, buyers are expected to be more active close to those levels, awaiting a recovery of the prices, or seeing more difficult further declines. In case a support area is broken, the prices could try to reach the following support area. A support is the opposite of a resistance level.

It is when a market is showing a clear movement. If the movement is upwards, we will call it bull trend, if it is downwards it will be called bearish trend. Identifying the beginning and the end of a trend is a crucial part of the job of an investor.

It is the currency code for Turkish Lira.

 It is the currency code for US Dollar. 

The West Texas Intermediate is the light and sweet crude oil produced and refined in North America. It is one of the three main benchmarks for the oil derivatives contracts.

It is the income return earned from an investment (usually in the form of interest or dividends). It is generally expressed as an annual percentage rate.