P

P&S (Purchase and Sale Statement): A statement sent by a futures commission merchant to a customer when any part of a futures position is offset, showing the number of contracts involved, the prices at which the contracts were bought or sold, the gross profit or loss, the commission charges, the net profit or loss on the transactions, and the balance. FCMs also send P&S Statements whenever any other event occurs that alters the account balance including when the customer deposits or withdraws margin and when the FCM places excess margin in interest bearing instruments for the customer’s benefit.

Paper Profit or Loss: The profit or loss that would be realized if open contracts were liquidated as of a certain time or at a certain price.

Par: (1) Refers to the standard delivery point(s) and/or quality of a commodity that is deliverable on a futures contract at contract price. Serves as a benchmark upon which to base discounts or premiums for varying quality and delivery locations; (2) in bond markets, an index (usually 100) representing the face value of a bond.

Path Dependent Option: An option whose valuation and payoff depends on the realized price path of the underlying asset, such as an Asian option or a Lookback option.

Pay/Collect: A shorthand method of referring to the payment of a loss (pay) and receipt of a gain (collect) by a clearing member to or from a clearing organization that occurs after a futures position has been marked-to-market. See Variation Margin.

Pegged Price: The price at which a commodity has been fixed by agreement.

Pegging: Effecting transactions in an instrument underlying an option to prevent a decline in the price of the instrument shortly prior to the option’s expiration date so that previously written put options will expire worthless, thus protecting premiums previously received. See Capping.

Performance Bond: See Margin.

Pip: The smallest price unit of a commodity or currency.

Pit: A specially constructed area on the trading floor of some exchanges where trading in a futures contract or option is conducted. On other exchanges, the term ring designates the trading area for commodity contract.

Pit Brokers: See Floor Broker.

Point-and-Figure Chart: A method of charting that uses prices to form patterns of movement without regard to time. It defines a price trend as a continued movement in one direction until a reversal of a predetermined criterion is met.

Point Balance: A statement prepared by futures commission merchants to show profit or loss on all open contracts using an official closing or settlement price, usually at calendar month end.

Ponzi Scheme: Named after Charles Ponzi, a man with a remarkable criminal career in the early 20th century, the term has been used to describe pyramid arrangements whereby an enterprise makes payments to investors from the proceeds of a later investment rather than from profits of the underlying business venture, as the investors expected, and gives investors the impression that a legitimate profit-making business or investment opportunity exists, where in fact it is a mere fiction.

Pork Bellies: One of the major cuts of the hog carcass that, when cured, becomes bacon.

Portfolio Insurance: A trading strategy that uses stock index futures and/or stock index options to protect stock portfolios against market declines.

Portfolio Margining: A method for setting margin requirements that evaluates positions as a group or portfolio and takes into account the potential for losses on some positions to be offset by gains on others. Specifically, the margin requirement for a portfolio is typically set equal to an estimate of the largest possible decline in the net value of the portfolio that could occur under assumed changes in market conditions. Sometimes referred to as risked-based margining. Also see Strategy-Based Margining.

Position: An interest in the market, either long or short, in the form of one or more open contracts.

Position Accountability: A rule adopted by an exchange requiring persons holding a certain number of outstanding contracts to report the nature of the position, trading strategy, and hedging information of the position to the exchange, upon request of the exchange. See Speculative Position Limit.

Position Limit: See Speculative Position Limit.

Position Trader: A commodity trader who either buys or sells contracts and holds them for an extended period of time, as distinguished from a day trader, who will normally initiate and offset a futures position within a single trading session.

Positive Carry: The cost of financing a financial instrument (the short-term rate of interest), where the cost is less than the current return of the financial instrument. See Carrying Charges and Negative Carry.

Posted Price: An announced or advertised price indicating what a firm will pay for a commodity or the price at which the firm will sell it.

Prearranged Trading: Trading between brokers in accordance with an expressed or implied agreement or understanding, which is a violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

Premium: (1) The payment an option buyer makes to the option writer for granting an option contract; (2) the amount a price would be increased to purchase a better quality commodity; (3) refers to a futures delivery month selling at a higher price than another, as "July is at a premium over May."

Price Basing: A situation where producers, processors, merchants, or consumers of a commodity establish commercial transaction prices based on the futures prices for that or a related commodity (e.g., an offer to sell corn at 5 cents over the December futures price). This phenomenon is commonly observed in grain and metal markets.

Price Discovery: The process of determining the price level for a commodity based on supply and demand conditions. Price discovery may occur in a futures market or cash market.

Price Movement Limit: See Limit (Up or Down).

Primary Market: (1) For producers, their major purchaser of commodities; (2) to processors, the market that is the major supplier of their commodity needs; and (3) in commercial marketing channels, an important center at which spot commodities are concentrated for shipment to terminal markets.

Program Trading: The purchase (or sale) of a large number of stocks contained in or comprising a portfolio. Originally called program trading when index funds and other institutional investors began to embark on large-scale buying or selling campaigns or "programs" to invest in a manner that replicates a target stock index, the term now also commonly includes computer-aided stock market buying or selling programs, and index arbitrage.

Prompt Date: The date on which the buyer of an option will buy or sell the underlying commodity (or futures contract) if the option is exercised.

Prop Shop: A proprietary trading group, especially one where the group's traders trade electronically at a physical facility operated by the group.

Proprietary Trading Account: An account that a futures commission merchant carries for itself or a closely related person, such as a parent, subsidiary or affiliate company, general partner, director, associated person, or an owner of 10 percent or more of the capital stock. The FCM must segregate customer funds from funds related to proprietary accounts.

Proprietary Trading Group: An organization whose owners, employees, and/or contractors trade in the name of accounts owned by the group and exclusively use the funds of the group for all of their trading activity.

Public: In trade parlance, non-professional speculators as distinguished from hedgers and professional speculators or traders.

Public Elevators: Grain elevators in which bulk storage of grain is provided to the public for a fee. Grain of the same grade but owned by different persons is usually mixed or commingled as opposed to storing it "identity preserved." Some elevators are approved by exchanges as regular for delivery on futures contracts, see Regular Warehouse.

Purchase and Sale Statement: See P&S.

Put Option: An option contract that gives the holder the right but not the obligation to sell a specified quantity of a particular commodity or other interest at a given price (the "strike price") prior to or on a future date.

Pyramiding: The use of profits on existing positions as margin to increase the size of the position, normally in successively smaller increments.

QR

Qualified Eligible Person (QEP): The definition of QEP is too complex to summarize here; please see CFTC Regulation 4.7(a)(2) and (a)(3), 17 CFR 4.7(a)(2) and (a)(3), for the full definition.

Quick Order: See Fill or Kill Order.

Quotation: The actual price or the bid or ask price of either cash commodities or futures contracts.

Rally: An upward movement of prices.

Random Walk: An economic theory that market price movements move randomly. This assumes an efficient market. The theory also assumes that new information comes to the market randomly. Together, the two assumptions imply that market prices move randomly as new information is incorporated into market prices. The theory implies that the best predictor of future prices is the current price, and that past prices are not a reliable indicator of future prices. If the random walk theory is correct, technical analysis cannot work.

Range: The difference between the high and low price of a commodity, futures, or option contract during a given period.

Ratio Hedge: The number of options compared to the number of futures contracts bought or sold in order to establish a hedge that is neutral or delta neutral.

Ratio Spread: This strategy, which applies to both puts and calls, involves buying or selling options at one strike price in greater number than those bought or sold at another strike price. Ratio spreads are typically designed to be delta neutral. Back spreads and front preads are types of ratio spreads.

Ratio Vertical Spread: See Front Spread.

Reaction: A downward price movement after a price advance.

Recovery: An upward price movement after a decline.

Reference Asset: An asset, such as a corporate or sovereign debt instrument, that underlies a credit derivative.

Regular Warehouse: A processing plant or warehouse that satisfies exchange requirements for financing, facilities, capacity, and location and has been approved as acceptable for delivery of commodities against futures contracts. See Licensed Warehouse.

Replicating Portfolio: A portfolio of assets for which changes in value match those of a target asset. For example, a portfolio replicating a standard option can be constructed with certain amounts of the asset underlying the option and bonds. Sometimes referred to as a synthetic asset.

Repo or Repurchase Agreement: A transaction in which one party sells a security to another party while agreeing to repurchase it from the counterparty at some date in the future, at an agreed price. Repos allow traders to short-sell securities and allow the owners of securities to earn added income by lending the securities they own. Through this operation the counterparty is effectively a borrower of funds to finance further. The rate of interest used is known as the repo rate.

Reporting Level: Sizes of positions set by the exchanges and/or the CFTC at or above which commodity traders or brokers who carry these accounts must make daily reports about the size of the position by commodity, by delivery month, and whether the position is controlled by a commercial or non-commercial trader. See the Large Trader Reporting Program.

Resistance: In technical analysis, a price area where new selling will emerge to dampen a continued rise. See Support.

Resting Order: A limit order to buy at a price below or to sell at a price above the prevailing market that is being held by a floor broker. Such orders may either be day orders or open orders.

Retail Customer: A customer that does not qualify as an eligible contract participant under Section 1a(12) of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 USC 1a(12). An individual with total assets that do not exceed $10 million, or $5 million if the individual is entering into an agreement, contract, or transaction to manage risk, would be considered a retail customer.

Retender: In specific circumstances, some exchanges permit holders of futures contracts who have received a delivery notice through the clearing organization to sell a futures contract and return the notice to the clearing organization to be reissued to another long; others permit transfer of notices to another buyer. In either case, the trader is said to have retendered the notice.

Retracement: A reversal within a major price trend.

Reversal: A change of direction in prices. See Reverse Conversion.

Reverse Conversion or Reversal: With regard to options, a position created by buying a call option, selling a put option, and selling the underlying instrument (for example, a futures contract). See Conversion.

Reverse Crush Spread: The sale of soybean futures and the simultaneous purchase of soybean oil and meal futures. See Crush Spread.

Riding the Yield Curve: Trading in an interest rate futures contract according to the expectations of change in the yield curve.

Ring: A circular area on the trading floor of an exchange where traders and brokers stand while executing futures trades. Some exchanges use pits rather than rings.

Risked-Based Margining: See Portfolio Margining.

Risk Factor: See Delta.

Risk/Reward Ratio: The relationship between the probability of loss and profit. This ratio is often used as a basis for trade selection or comparison.

Roll-Over: A trading procedure involving the shift of one month of a straddle into another future month while holding the other contract month. The shift can take place in either the long or short straddle month. The term also applies to lifting a near futures position and re-establishing it in a more deferred delivery month.

Round Lot: A quantity of a commodity equal in size to the corresponding futures contract for the commodity. See Even Lot.

Round Trip Trading: See Wash Trading.

Round Turn: A completed transaction involving both a purchase and a liquidating sale, or a sale followed by a covering purchase.

Rules: The principles for governing an exchange. In some exchanges, rules are adopted by a vote of the membership, while in others, they can be imposed by the governing board.

Runners: Messengers or clerks who deliver orders received by phone clerks to brokers for execution in the pit.

S

Sample Grade: Usually the lowest quality of a commodity, too low to be acceptable for delivery in satisfaction of futures contracts.

Scale Down or Scale Up: To purchase or sell a scale down means to buy or sell at regular price intervals in a declining market. To buy or sell on scale up means to buy or sell at regular price intervals as the market advances.

Scalper: A speculator on the trading floor of an exchange who buys and sells rapidly, with small profits or losses, holding his positions for only a short time during a trading session. Typically, a scalper will stand ready to buy at a fraction below the last transaction price and to sell at a fraction above, e.g., to buy at the bid and sell at the offer or ask price, with the intent of capturing the spread between the two, thus creating market liquidity. See Day Trader, Position Trader.

Seasonality Claims: Misleading sales pitches that one can earn large profits with little risk based on predictable seasonal changes in supply or demand, published reports or other well-known events.

Seat: An instrument granting trading privileges on an exchange. A seat may also represent an ownership interest in the exchange.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): The Federal regulatory agency established in 1934 to administer Federal securities laws.

Security: Generally, a transferable instrument representing an ownership interest in a corporation (equity security or stock) or the debt of a corporation, municipality, or sovereign. Other forms of debt such as mortgages can be converted into securities. Certain derivatives on securities (e.g., options on equity securities) are also considered securities for the purposes of the securities laws. Security futures products are considered to be both securities and futures products. Futures contracts on broad-based securities indexes are not considered securities.

Security Deposit: See Margin.

Security Future: A contract for the sale or future delivery of a single security or of a narrow-based security index.

Security Futures Product: A security future or any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege on any security future.

Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO): Exchanges and registered futures associations that enforce financial and sales practice requirements for their members. See Designated Self-Regulatory Organizations.

Seller's Call: Seller's call, also referred to as call purchase, is the same as the buyer's call except that the seller has the right to determine the time to fix the price. See Buyer’s Call.

Seller's Market: A condition of the market in which there is a scarcity of goods available and hence sellers can obtain better conditions of sale or higher prices. See Buyer's Market.

Seller's Option: The right of a seller to select, within the limits prescribed by a contract, the quality of the commodity delivered and the time and place of delivery.

Selling Hedge (or Short Hedge): Selling futures contracts to protect against possible decreased prices of commodities. See Hedging.

Series (of Options): Options of the same type (i.e., either puts or calls, but not both), covering the same underlying futures contract or other underlying instrument, having the same strike price and expiration date.

Settlement: The act of fulfilling the delivery requirements of the futures contract.

Settlement Price: The daily price at which the clearing organization clears all trades and settles all accounts between clearing members of each contract month. Settlement prices are used to determine both margin calls and invoice prices for deliveries. The term also refers to a price established by the exchange to even up positions which may not be able to be liquidated in regular trading.

Shipping Certificate: A negotiable instrument used by several futures exchanges as the futures delivery instrument for several commodities (e.g., soybean meal, plywood, and white wheat). The shipping certificate is issued by exchange-approved facilities and represents a commitment by the facility to deliver the commodity to the holder of the certificate under the terms specified therein. Unlike an issuer of a warehouse receipt, who has physical product in store, the issuer of a shipping certificate may honor its obligation from current production or through-put as well as from inventories.

Shock Absorber: A temporary restriction in the trading of certain stock index futures contracts that becomes effective following a significant intraday decrease in stock index futures prices. Designed to provide an adjustment period to digest new market information, the restriction bars trading below a specified price level. Shock absorbers are generally market specific and at tighter levels than circuit breakers.

Short: (1) The selling side of an open futures contract; (2) a trader whose net position in the futures market shows an excess of open sales over open purchases. See Long.

Short Covering: See Cover.

Short Hedge: See Selling Hedge.

Short Selling: Selling a futures contract or other instrument with the idea of delivering on it or offsetting it at a later date.

Short Squeeze: See Squeeze.

Short the Basis: The purchase of futures as a hedge against a commitment to sell in the cash or spot markets. See Hedging.

Single Stock Future: A futures contract on a single stock. Single stock futures were illegal in the U.S. prior to the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. See Security Future, Security Futures Product.

Small Traders: Traders who hold or control positions in futures or options that are below the reporting level specified by the exchange or the CFTC.

Soft: (1) A description of a price that is gradually weakening; or (2) this term also refers to certain “soft” commodities such as sugar, cocoa, and coffee.

Sold-Out-Market: When liquidation of a weakly-held position has been completed, and offerings become scarce, the market is said to be sold out.

SPAN® (Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk®): As developed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the industry standard for calculating performance bond requirements (margins) on the basis of overall portfolio risk. SPAN calculates risk for all enterprise levels on derivative and non-derivative instruments at numerous exchanges and clearing organizations worldwide.

Spark Spread: The differential between the price of electricity and the price of natural gas or other fuel used to generate electricity, expressed in equivalent units. See Gross Processing Margin.

Specialist System: A type of trading commonly used for the exchange trading of securities in which one individual or firm acts as a market-maker in a particular security, with the obligation to provide fair and orderly trading in that security by offsetting temporary imbalances in supply and demand by trading for the specialist’s own account. See Open Outcry.

Speculative Bubble: A rapid run-up in prices caused by excessive buying that is unrelated to any of the basic, underlying factors affecting the supply or demand for a commodity or other asset. Speculative bubbles are usually associated with a "bandwagon" effect in which speculators rush to buy the commodity (in the case of futures, "to take positions") before the price trend ends, and an even greater rush to sell the commodity (unwind positions) when prices reverse.

Speculative Limit: See Speculative Position Limit.

Speculative Position Limit: The maximum position, either net long or net short, in one commodity future (or option) or in all futures (or options) of one commodity combined that may be held or controlled by one person (other than a person eligible for a hedge exemption) as prescribed by an exchange and/or by the CFTC.

Speculator: In commodity futures, an individual who does not hedge, but who trades with the objective of achieving profits through the successful anticipation of price movements.

Split Close: A condition that refers to price differences in transactions at the close of any market session.

Spot Market: Market of immediate delivery of and payment for the product.

Spot Commodity: (1) The actual commodity as distinguished from a futures contract; (2) sometimes used to refer to cash commodities available for immediate delivery. See Actuals or Cash Commodity.

Spot Month: The futures contract that matures and becomes deliverable during the present month. Also called Current Delivery Month.

Spot Price: The price at which a physical commodity for immediate delivery is selling at a given time and place. See Cash Price.

Spread (or Straddle): The purchase of one futures delivery month against the sale of another futures delivery month of the same commodity; the purchase of one delivery month of one commodity against the sale of that same delivery month of a different commodity; or the purchase of one commodity in one market against the sale of the commodity in another market, to take advantage of a profit from a change in price relationships. The term spread is also used to refer to the difference between the price of a futures month and the price of another month of the same commodity. A spread can also apply to options. See Arbitrage.

Squeeze: A market situation in which the lack of supplies tends to force shorts to cover their positions by offset at higher prices. Also see Congestion, Corner.

SRO: See Self-Regulatory Organization.

Stop-Close-Only Order: A stop order that can be executed, if possible, only during the closing period of the market. See also Market-on-Close Order.

Stop Limit Order: A stop limit order is an order that goes into force as soon as there is a trade at the specified price. The order, however, can only be filled at the stop limit price or better.

Stop Loss Order: See Stop Order.

Stop Order: This is an order that becomes a market order when a particular price level is reached. A sell stop is placed below the market, a buy stop is placed above the market. Sometimes referred to as stop loss order. Compare to market-if-touched order.

Straddle: (1) See Spread; (2) an option position consisting of the purchase of put and call options having the same expiration date and strike price.

Strangle: An option position consisting of the purchase of put and call options having the same expiration date, but different strike prices.

Strategy-Based Margining: A method for setting margin requirements whereby the potential for gains on one position in a portfolio to offset losses on another position is taken into account only if the portfolio implements one of a designated set of recognized trading strategies as set out in the rules of an exchange or clearing organization. Also see Portfolio Margining.

Street Book: A daily record kept by futures commission merchants and clearing members showing details of each futures and option transaction, including date, price, quantity, market, commodity, future, strike price, option type, and the person for whom the trade was made.

Strike Price (Exercise Price): The price, specified in the option contract, at which the underlying futures contract, security, or commodity will move from seller to buyer.

STRIPS (Separate Trading of Registered Interest and Principal Securities): A book-entry system operated by the Federal Reserve permitting separate trading and ownership of the principal and coupon portions of selected Treasury securities. It allows the creation of zero coupon Treasury securities from designated whole bonds.

Strong Hands: When used in connection with delivery of commodities on futures contracts, the term usually means that the party receiving the delivery notice probably will take delivery and retain ownership of the commodity; when used in connection with futures positions, the term usually means positions held by trade interests or well-financed speculators.

Support: In technical analysis, a price area where new buying is likely to come in and stem any decline. See Resistance.

Swap: In general, the exchange of one asset or liability for a similar asset or liability for the purpose of lengthening or shortening maturities, or raising or lowering coupon rates, to maximize revenue or minimize financing costs. This may entail selling one securities issue and buying another in foreign currency; it may entail buying a currency on the spot market and simultaneously selling it forward. Swaps also may involve exchanging income flows; for example, exchanging the fixed rate coupon stream of a bond for a variable rate payment stream, or vice versa, while not swapping the principal component of the bond. Swaps are generally traded over-the-counter.

Swaption: An option to enter into a swap—i.e., the right, but not the obligation, to enter into a specified type of swap at a specified future date.

Switch: Offsetting a position in one delivery month of a commodity and simultaneous initiation of a similar position in another delivery month of the same commodity, a tactic referred to as "rolling forward."

Synthetic Futures: A position created by combining call and put options. A synthetic long futures position is created by combining a long call option and a short put option for the same expiration date and the same strike price. A synthetic short futures contract is created by combining a long put and a short call with the same expiration date and the same strike price.

Systematic Risk: Market risk due to factors that cannot be eliminated by diversification.

Systemic Risk: The risk that a default by one market participant will have repercussions on other participants due to the interlocking nature of financial markets. For example, Customer A’s default in X market may affect Intermediary B’s ability to fulfill its obligations in Markets X, Y, and Z.