Foreign Exchange

Failure	In Elliott wave theory, a five-wave pattern of movement in which the fifth impulse wave fails to move above the end of the third, or in which the fifth wave does not contain the five subwaves.
False Breakout	Short-term movement of a rate through some conditional border (the previous top or a bottom, a level of consolidation), and then return and movement to the opposite party.
Fast Fourier Transform	A method by which to decompose data into a sum of sinusoids of varying cycle length, with each cycle being a fraction of a common fundamental cycle length.
Fast Market	A declaration that market conditions in the futures pit are so disorderly temporarily to the extent that floor brokers are not held responsible for the execution of orders.
Federal Reserve Bank	The governing central bank of the US.
Fibonacci Ratio	The ratio between any two successive numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, known as phi (ø). The ratio of any number to the next higher number is approximately 0.618 (known as the Golden Mean or Golden Ratio), and to the lower number approximately 1.618 (the inverse of the Golden Mean), after the first four numbers of the series. The three important ratios the series provides are 0.618, 1.0 and 1.618.
Fibonacci Sequence	The sequence of numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233...), discovered by the Italian mathematician Leonardo de Pisa in the 13th century and the mathematical basis of the Elliott wave theory, where the first two terms of the sequence are 0 and 1 and each successive number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. Technically, it is a sequence and not a series.
Figure	100 pips.
Fill Order	An order that must be filled immediately (or canceled).
c	Contracts that state agreement about the exchange of money in the future.
Financial Instrument	This term generally refers to any futures or option contract that is not based on an agricultural commodity or a natural resource. It includes currencies, securities, mortgages, commercial paper and stock indexes of various kinds.
Fine print	A reference to imaginary small type in a policy contract supposedly containing exclusions, reductions, exemptions, and limitations of coverage. Most state laws include specifications for the minimum type size that can be used in a policy, and they also provide that exclusions cannot be printed in type smaller than that used to print the benefits.
Fiscal Policy	Government spending and taxing for the specific purpose of stabilizing the economy.
Flat/Square Position	To either have no positions or positions that cancel each other out.
Flag	A pattern formed during a short consolidation in price movement that is contained by two parallel lines and thus looks similar to a flag on a flagpole. Additionally, the price movements before and after the flag are generally equal in length.
Floor Broker	A member of the stock exchange who executes orders on the floor of the exchange to buy or sell any listed securities.
Floor Traders	Employees of brokerage firms working on exchange trading floors.
Forecast	A future trend evaluation based on the exploration and analysis of the available information.
Foreign exchange	The purchase or sale of a currency against sale or purchase of another.
Forex	Foreign Exchange.
Forward	A deal that will commence at an agreed date in the future. Delivery of the asset is complete on the contract expiration date.
Forward Interest Rate	Interest rate fixed today on a loan to be made at some future date.
Fractal Dimension	From fractal geometry, used to describe the irregular nature of lines, curves, planes or volumes.
Fractals	Depiction of mathematical models that may be applied to identify data patterns.
Free-riding	The rapid buying and selling of a security without any intention of paying for the transaction. This practice is illegal.
Fundamental Analysis	The analytical method by which only the sales, earnings and the value of a given tradable's assets may be considered.
Future Volatility	A prediction of what volatility may be like in the future.
Futures	An agreement between a buyer and a seller to receive and deliver on a future date a specified amount of a product at an agreed price.
Futures Contract	A standardized forward contract that is traded on an exchange.
Futures Option	An option that gives its holder the right to buy or sell a futures contract at a certain price.
Futures Price	The price at which the parties to a futures contract agree to transact upon the settlement date.
Fuzzy Systems	A problem-solving method that can be applied to neural networks, expert systems and other comput ing methods. Fuzzy systems process inexact information inexactly and describe ambiguity rather than the uncer tainty of an occurrence and are useful in performing control and decision-making tasks.