Commodities Now Glossary

Lab49 - A strategy, design and technology consulting firm that creates advanced solutions for the world's leading investment banks, asset managers and exchanges.

Lacima - a specialist provider of risk management, valuation and optimisation software and services for multi-commodity trading organisations.

Latency Within the IT platforms upon which financial trading systems run, the speed at which data can be processed and exchanged between components directly affects the efficiency and overall speed of those systems. And the phenomenon that limits this speed is known as latency. Minimizing latency – to a point where it is close to eradicated – is the design goal for these platforms. But it is a design goal that is very challenging to meet. Latency is introduced by every component of the platform, be it the microprocessors, memory and I/O buses that make up servers, the network interfaces and cabling that form local data fabrics, the fibre optics that connect geographically dispersed processing endpoints and by the processing involved in executing the trading application logic itself. Thus, the overall latency of an IT platform is the sum of many contributors, including the vital messaging function or layer that binds the servers and networks – and the application logic – together.

LBMA - The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is the international trade association that represents the wholesale over-the-counter market for gold and silver bullion. The LBMA undertakes many activities on behalf of its members, including the setting of good delivery and refining standards, the organisation of conferences and other events, and serving as a point of contact for the regulatory authorities.

LCH.Clearnet – LCH.Clearnet is a leading independent clearinghouse group, serving major international exchanges and platforms, as well as a range of OTC markets. It clears a broad range of asset classes including: securities, exchange traded derivatives, energy, freight, interbank interest rate swaps, credit default swaps and euro and sterling denominated bonds and repos; and works closely with market participants and exchanges to identify and develop clearing services for new asset classes.

Lift (an offer) - 

Refers to execution related to buying at the current best offer in the market.

Limit order - 

An order in which the customer sets a limit on the price and/or time of execution.

Liquid
 - 
A characteristic of a security or commodity market with enough units outstanding to allow large transactions without a substantial change in price. Institutional investors are inclined to seek out liquid investments so that their trading activity will not influence the market price.

LOGAVIV - Since its creation in 1995, LOGAVIV has developed software and IT services dedicated to market information and risk management, working closely with commodity operators: trading companies, brokers, industrials and banks. Today, more than 300 companies in Europe are using LOGAVIV solutions.

London Metal Exchange - LME: the world’s premier non-ferrous metals market. It offers futures and options contracts for aluminium, copper, nickel, tin, zinc, lead, aluminium alloy and a regional North American aluminium alloy contract. Steel, Plastics and Minor Metals are also offered.

Long hedge
 - 
Buyer futures contracts to protect against a possible price increase of cash commodities that will e purchased in the future. At the time the cash commodities are bought, the open futures position is closed by selling an equal number and type of futures contracts as those that were initially purchased. Also referred to as a buying hedge.