| Facilitation Order |
An order from the proprietary account of the Principal Market-Maker (PMM) or other members executed in whole or in part in a cross-transaction with a customer's (non-member's) order. |
| Fast market |
Term used to define unusually hectic market conditions. |
| FCMs |
Futures Commission Merchant. Individuals, associations, partnerships, corporations and trusts that solicit or accept orders for the execution of a commodity transaction on and pursuant to the rules of a contract market and which accept payment from or extend credit to customers. Also, see "clearing member." |
| Federal Reserve (Fed) |
The central bank of the United States, which governs monetary policy and derives its authority from the U.S Congress. The current Federal Reserve Chairman is Alan Greenspan. |
| Fill-and-kill order (FAK) |
At order entry, the order is executed to the extent possible; the remainder (if any) is canceled. |
| Fill-or-kill order (FOK) |
A limit order that must be filled immediately or canceled. |
| FIN |
Futures Industry Frame Relay Network. Used by Member firms for Clearing 21® and link to definition access to CME. |
| Final Long Position |
Method for reporting final positions to the exchange by providing the number of long positions. The clearing system will compute the open position based on the current days' trading activity. Firms may only offset positions within individual accounts, not at the firm level. |
| Finish-to-finish dependency |
The "from" activity must finish before the "to" activity can finish. |
| Finish-to-start dependency |
The "from" activity must finish before the "to" activity can start. |
| Firm |
At CME, it is called a clearing member firm. A company that has membership privileges and clearing status with Chicago Mercantile Exchange. See clearing member. |
| Firm Number |
A three digit numeric code used in CME's Clearing System to identify a clearing firm. |
| FirmSoft |
A user-friendly search tool to provide firms with easy access to research and cancel their orders. |
| First Intent Day |
The first day on which a seller can submit to CME Clearing a notice of intent to deliver a commodity against a short futures contract. The first notice day varies with each commodity. |
| FIX API |
Designed to allow firms and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to easily integrate their order entry and routing systems with CME. It is a software library of functions that enables a member's order management system to communicate with exchange order routing systems. Member firms can run the CME FIX API on their computers to electronically send orders to and receive fills from the CME Globex platform or the firm's exchange floor operations by way of the firm's internal order management system. |
| FIX API 2.3 |
CME developed FIX API 2.3 to replace the legacy Order Routing API (ORAPI). FIX API 2.3 employs an "ORAPI-like" interface, allowing customers easy transition from ORAPI to FIX API 2.3. This API has more functionality; in that it routes orders to CME's floor as well as allows for additional order types. |
| FIX API 2.3 Express |
A streamlined version of the FIX API 2.3 used only for order routing to GLOBEX. Does not include retail preprocessing. 2.3 Express was developed to provide CME customers with a faster alternative to FIX API 2.3 for customers whose primary concern is speed. |
| FIX API 4.2 |
The FIX 4.2 is an order routing interface in the pure FIX 4.2 protocol. It routes orders only to GLOBEX and is part of the iLink project. |
| FIX server process |
The name of the FIX server process to which the firms connect. Examples: FIXSOM00100, FIXOM69001,FIXSOM80502. Assignee: support and QA team. |
| Fix team |
Resources who receive system defect list and determine the root cause and phase of defect. They implement a correction to the application logic or scripts, and adjust and re-execute their test plan before re-submitting to the test execution team (Most often this is comprised of developers). |
| FIX user ID |
The client application’s logon ID for the CME FIX servers. The server authenticates this ID during the logon process. Only the assigned user ID may be used to logon to the CME FIX server. Examples: 00100A, 80502B. Assignee: support and QA team. |
| Flat |
Market slang to indicate when a position has been evened up or closed out. |
| Flex option |
Non-standard option in which the buyer and seller can agree to terms where the strike price may exceed the eligible range of standard strikes, the expiration date can be any business date other than the standard expiration date, or the option can be defined to expire as "American" or "European" style and the option can have any listed futures as its underlying. |
| Floor broker |
An individual who is registered with the CFTC to execute orders on the floor of an exchange for the account of another. He /she receives a fee for doing so by clearing members or their customers. |
| Floor trader |
An individual who is registered with the CFTC to execute trades on the floor of an exchange for his own account (or for an account he controls). Also referred to as a local. |
| FOK (fill or kill) |
See "fill or kill." |
| Following Day (or other similar expression) |
The next business or trading day. |
| Foreign exchange (or FX) |
An over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers conduct foreign exchange transactions. Also called foreign exchange market. GU=Give-up Trade OR SX=SGX MOS Trade (If this field is populated, the foreign firm field must also be populated, except in the case of multiple firm give-ups). |
| Foreign firm (or F-firm) |
Clearing firm number of the single firm give-up or SGX firm (For multiple firm give-ups, this field may be left blank). Entry will automatically allocate the trade to this firm via GGU or MOS (mutual offset system). (If this field is populated, the foreign exchange field must be populated. |
| Forms |
All forms referred to herein; e.g., "Buyer Delivery Commitment," shall be forms prescribed by the exchange. |
| Forward contract |
A private, cash-market agreement between a buyer and seller for the future delivery of a commodity at an agreed price. In contrast to futures contracts, forward contracts are not standardized and not transferable. |
| Forward Points |
A metric that can be employed to calculate forward exchange rates. , Forward Points express the premium or discount for the base currency in terms of the quote currency. Forward Points are a function of the spot exchange rate, interest rates, and time. Forward points are added to the spot rate to obtain the forward rate. |
| Full-service broker |
See "broker." |
| Fundamental analysis |
The study of supply and demand information to aid in anticipating futures price trends. |
| Fundamentalist |
One who engages in fundamental analysis. |
| Futures |
The standardized contracts covering the purchase and sale of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery on a regulated commodity futures exchange. |
| Futures calendar spread |
Also called a futures intra-delivery spread. The simultaneous purchase and sale of the same futures contract, but different contract months. (i.e., buying a September CME S&P 500® futures contract and selling a December CME S&P 500 futures contract). |
| Futures commission merchant (FCM) |
A firm or person engaged in soliciting or accepting and handling orders for the purchase or sale of futures contracts, subject to the rules of a futures exchange and, who, in connection with solicitation or acceptance of orders, accepts any money or securities to margin any resulting trades or contracts. The FCM must be licensed by the CFTC. |
| Futures contract |
An obligation to deliver or to receive a specified quantity and grade of a commodity during a designated month at the designated price. Each futures contract is standardized and specifies commodity, quality, quantity, delivery date and settlement. |
| Futures price |
The price of a given commodity contract. |