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Matchbook FX
Matchbook FX was an internet-based electronic communication network ("ECN" or Electronic Trading Network) for trading currency online in the Spot-FX or foreign exchange market. It operated between 1999 and 2002. History Founded in 1999, Matchbook FX (sometimes referenced as "MatchbookFX", "MatchBook FX" or "Match-Book FX") was the world's first open and inclusive internet ECN for Foreign Exchange trading, available to all willing FX trading participants including hedge funds, CTAs, banks, corporations and, uniquely at the time, retail FX traders as well. Matchbook FX was initially conceived by Daniel Uslander, Ron Comerchero (commodity futures and equities traders) and Josh Levy (former Goldman Sachs FX trader) of the New York-based proprietary FX trading firm Valhalla Forex Inc, as well as Mark S Smith of the Florida-based equities-trading technology firm NexTrade ECN. Several months later, GlobalNetFinancial.com, a NASDAQ-traded financial news and technology firm, bought in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brokerage
A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confused with that of an agent—one who acts on behalf of a principal party in a deal. Definition A broker is an independent party whose services are used extensively in some industries. A broker's prime responsibility is to bring sellers and buyers together and thus a broker is the third-person facilitator between a buyer and a seller. An example would be a real estate broker who facilitates the sale of a property. Brokers can furnish market research and market data. Brokers may represent either the seller or the buyer but generally not both at the same time. Brokers are expected to have the tools and resources to reach the largest possible base of buyers and sellers. They then screen these potential buyers or selle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedge Funds
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniques are short selling and the use of leverage and derivative instruments. In the United States, financial regulations require that hedge funds be marketed only to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. Hedge funds are considered alternative investments. Their ability to use leverage and more complex investment techniques distinguishes them from regulated investment funds available to the retail market, commonly known as mutual funds and ETFs. They are also considered distinct from private equity funds and other similar closed-end funds as hedge funds generally invest in relatively liquid assets and are usually open-ended. This means they typically allow investors to invest and withdraw capital periodically based on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hotspot FX
The Knight Capital Group was an American global financial services firm engaging in market making, electronic execution, and institutional sales and trading. With its high-frequency trading algorithms Knight was the largest trader in U.S. equities, with a market share of 17.3% on NYSE and 16.9% on NASDAQ. The company agreed to be acquired by Getco LLC in December 2012 after an August 2012 trading error lost $460 million. The merger was completed in July 2013, forming KCG Holdings. Company Knight was formerly known as Knight/Trimark Group, Inc. and Knight Trading Group, Inc. Initially, Knight Trading group had multiple offices located in the United States and in other cities around the world. Knight's Asset Management offices were headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, with offices in Hong Kong, China, and London. Activities Knight's largest business was market making in U.S. equities. Its Electronic Trading Group (ETG) covered more than 19,000 U.S. securities with an average da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Exchange Aggregator
A foreign exchange aggregator or FX Aggregator is a class of systems used in Forex trading to aggregate the liquidity from several liquidity providers. Mechanism Aggregators usually provide two main functions; they allow FX traders to compare price from different liquidity venues such as banks-global market makers or ECNs like Currenex, FXall or Hotspot FX and to have a consolidated view of the market. They allow traders to trade with many participants using a single API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ... or a single trading terminal. Some of the systems support order sweeping (an order is split into the chunks which are sent to the respective counterparties based on the price, time and other attributes of the quotes from these counterparties), other systems rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dot-com Bubble
The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Internet, resulting in a dispensation of available venture capital and the rapid growth of valuations in new dot-com Startup company, startups. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, investments in the NASDAQ composite stock market index rose by 80%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble. During the dot-com crash, many online shopping companies, notably Pets.com, Webvan, and Boo.com, as well as several communication companies, such as Worldcom, NorthPoint Communications, and Global Crossing, failed and shut down. Others, like Lastminute.com, MP3.com and PeopleSound were bought out. Larger companies like Amazon (company), Amazon and Cisco Systems lost large portions of their market capitalizati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Futures Association
The National Futures Association (NFA) is the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the U.S. derivatives industry, including on-exchange traded futures, retail off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and OTC derivatives ( swaps). NFA is headquartered in Chicago and maintains an office in New York City. NFA is a non-profit, independent regulatory organization. NFA does not operate any markets and is not a trade association. NFA is financed from membership dues and assessment fees, and membership is mandatory for many market participants. History The National Futures Association (NFA) was created by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US government created in 1974 that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, which includes futures contract, fut ... (CFTC) in September 1981 and began regulatory operations in 1982. Responsibilities NFA chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Request For Quotation
A request for quotation (RfQ) is a business process in which a company or public entity requests a quote from a supplier for the purchase of specific products or services. RfQ generally means the same thing as Call for bids (CfB) and Invitation for bid (IfB). An RfQ typically involves more than the price per item. Information like payment terms, quality level per item or contract length may be requested during the bidding process. To receive correct quotes, RfQs often include the specifications of the items/services to make sure all the suppliers are bidding on the same item/service. Logically, the more detailed the specifications A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard. There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ..., the more accurate the quote will be and comparable to the other suppliers. Another reason for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bid–ask Spread
The bid–ask spread (also bid–offer or bid/ask and buy/sell in the case of a market maker) is the difference between the prices quoted (either by a single market maker or in a Order book (trading), limit order book) for an immediate sale (Ask price, ask) and an immediate purchase (Bid price, bid) for Shares, stocks, futures contracts, Option (finance), options, or currency pairs in some auction scenario. The size of the bid–ask spread in a security is one measure of the liquidity of the market and of the size of the transaction cost. If the spread is 0 then it is a frictionless market, frictionless asset. Liquidity The trader initiating the transaction is said to demand market liquidity, liquidity, and the other party (counterparty) to the transaction supplies liquidity. Liquidity demanders place market orders and liquidity suppliers place limit orders. For a round trip (a purchase and sale together) the liquidity demander pays the spread and the liquidity supplier earns the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Market Maker
A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the difference, which is called the ''bid–ask spread'' or ''turn.'' This stabilizes the market, reducing price variation (Volatility (finance), volatility) by setting a trading price range for the asset. In U.S. markets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission defines a "market maker" as a firm that stands ready to buy and sell stock on a regular and continuous basis at a publicly quoted price. A Designated Primary Market Maker (DPM) is a specialized market maker approved by an exchange to guarantee a buy or sell position in a particular assigned security, option, or option index. In currency exchange Most foreign exchange trading firms are market makers, as are many banks. The foreign exchange market maker both buys foreign currency from clients and sells it to other clients. They derive income from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Limit Order Book
A central limit order book (CLOB) is a trading method used by most exchanges globally using the order book and a matching engine to execute limit orders. It is a transparent system that matches customer orders (e.g. bids and offers) on a 'price time priority' basis. The highest ("best") bid order and the lowest ("cheapest") offer order constitutes the best market or "the touch" in a given security or swap contract. Customers can routinely cross the bid/ask spread to effect immediate execution. They also can see market depth or the "stack" in which customers can view bid orders for various sizes and prices on one side vs. viewing offer orders at various sizes and prices on the other side. The CLOB is by definition fully transparent, real-time, anonymous and low cost in execution. Such a book was proposed as a centralised database of limit orders by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000. However, the concept was opposed by securities companies. In the CLOB model, custo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Market Power
In economics, market power refers to the ability of a theory of the firm, firm to influence the price at which it sells a product or service by manipulating either the supply or demand of the product or service to increase economic profit. In other words, market power occurs if a firm does not face a perfectly elastic demand curve and can set its price (P) above marginal cost (MC) without losing revenue. This indicates that the magnitude of market power is associated with the gap between P and MC at a firm's profit maximising level of output. The size of the gap, which encapsulates the firm's level of market dominance, is determined by the residual demand curve's form. A steeper reverse demand indicates higher earnings and more dominance in the market. Such propensities contradict Perfect competition, perfectly competitive markets, where market participants have no market power, P = MC and firms earn zero economic profit. Market participants in perfectly competitive markets are cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Market Maker
A market maker or liquidity provider is a company or an individual that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a tradable asset held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the difference, which is called the ''bid–ask spread'' or ''turn.'' This stabilizes the market, reducing price variation (Volatility (finance), volatility) by setting a trading price range for the asset. In U.S. markets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission defines a "market maker" as a firm that stands ready to buy and sell stock on a regular and continuous basis at a publicly quoted price. A Designated Primary Market Maker (DPM) is a specialized market maker approved by an exchange to guarantee a buy or sell position in a particular assigned security, option, or option index. In currency exchange Most foreign exchange trading firms are market makers, as are many banks. The foreign exchange market maker both buys foreign currency from clients and sells it to other clients. They derive income from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
