Market Conduct and Securities

The terms

• Best Execution

  Best execution is the duty of a broker or investment firm to work to obtain the best overall result for clients when it carries out their orders, weighing price alongside other factors.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Blackout Period

  A blackout period is a set time during which certain people, usually insiders, are barred from trading a company's securities, to prevent misuse of undisclosed information.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Churning

  Churning is a broker or adviser making excessive trades in a client's account mainly to earn commissions or fees, while paying little attention to what the client needs.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Client Asset Protection

  Client asset protection covers the rules that require firms holding customers' money or securities to keep them separate from the firm's own, record them accurately and return them if the firm fails.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Continuous Disclosure

  Continuous disclosure is the duty of a listed company to tell the market promptly about information that could affect its share price, and to publish regular reports, so that all investors are equally informed.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Cross-Trade

  A cross-trade is a transaction in which a manager or broker matches a buy order from one client with a sell order from another, or from the firm itself, without going through the open market.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Dodd-Frank Act

  The Dodd-Frank Act is a 2010 United States law that reformed financial regulation after the 2008 crisis, creating new oversight bodies and rules on risk-taking, derivatives, consumer finance and whistleblowing.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Insider List

  An insider list is a record, kept by an issuer or its advisers, of the people who have access to inside information, with the time they received it, so that regulators can trace any leak.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Issuer

  An issuer is a company, government or other body that creates and sells securities such as shares or bonds to raise money, and takes on legal duties towards the investors who buy them.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Listing Rules

  Listing rules are the conditions a stock exchange or securities regulator sets for companies whose securities trade on its market, covering admission standards, disclosure, governance and continuing obligations.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Market Integrity

  Market integrity is the state in which financial markets operate fairly and openly, without deceit, so that prices reflect genuine supply and demand and no participant gains from cheating or secret advantage.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II)

  MiFID II is the European Union framework governing investment firms, trading venues and the sale of financial instruments, aimed at protecting investors and making markets more transparent. A companion regulation, MiFIR, sits beside it.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Personal Account Dealing Acronym: PAD

  Personal account dealing is the buying and selling of securities by staff for their own accounts, together with the firm's rules limiting it so employees cannot profit from confidential information or clients' orders.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Restricted List

  A restricted list is a confidential internal list of securities in which a firm and its staff may not trade or advise, because the firm holds inside information or has a conflict.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Short Selling Regulation

  Short selling regulation is the set of rules that require traders to disclose large short positions, and that limit or ban selling shares or bonds they have not borrowed, to curb abuse and market stress.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation

• Wall-Crossing

  Wall-crossing is the controlled step of bringing a person from the public side of an information barrier to the private side, so they can receive inside information under agreed restrictions.

  Domain: Compliance and Regulation