Glossary - F

Trading terms that begin with the letter F

Fast Market
_{What Does Fast Market Mean?}

A financial market that has a combination of high volatility and heavy trading.

Fed Speak
_{What Does Fed Speak Mean?}

A phrase used to describe former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's tendency to make wordy statements with little substance. Many analysts felt that Greenspan's ambiguous "Fed speak" was an intentional strategy used to prevent the markets from overreacting to his remarks.

Financial Crisis
_{What Does Financial Crisis Mean?}

A situation in which the value of financial institutions or assets drops rapidly. A financial crisis is often associated with a panic or a run on the banks, in which investors sell off assets or withdraw money from savings accounts with the expectation that the value of those assets will drop if they remain at a financial institution.

Forex - FX
_{What Does Forex - FX Mean?}

The market in which currencies are traded. The forex market is the largest, most liquid market in the world with an average traded value that exceeds $1.9 trillion per day and includes all of the currencies in the world.

Fundamental Analysis
_{What Does Fundamental Analysis Mean?}

A method of evaluating a security that entails attempting to measure its intrinsic value by examining related economic, financial and other qualitative and quantitative factors. Fundamental analysts attempt to study everything that can affect the security's value, including macroeconomic factors (like the overall economy and industry conditions) and company-specific factors (like financial condition and management).

The end goal of performing fundamental analysis is to produce a value that an investor can compare with the security's current price, with the aim of figuring out what sort of position to take with that security (underpriced = buy, overpriced = sell or short).

This method of security analysis is considered to be the opposite of technical analysis.