Ml Money supply measure that is composed of currency in circulation (outside the Treasury, the Fed, and depository institutions), traveler's checks, demand deposits, and other checkable deposits [negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts, automatic transfer service (ATS) accounts, etc.].
M2 Money supply measure that consists of Ml plus repurchase agreements, overnight Eurodollars, money market deposit accounts, savings and time deposits (in amounts under $100,000), and balances in general accounts.
M3 Money supply measure that is composed of M2 plus time deposits over $100,000, term Eurodollar deposits, and all balances in institutional money market mutual funds.
Margin The amount of money or collateral deposited by a customer with a broker, by a broker with a clearing member, or by a clearing member with the clearinghouse in order to insure the broker or clearinghouse against loss on outstanding futures positions.
Mark-to-market Daily cash flow system used by the U.S. futures exchanges to maintain a minimum level of margin equity for a specific currency future or option by calculating the profit and loss at the end of each trading day in each contract position resulting from the price fluctuation.
Matched sale-purchase agreements Daily operations executed by the Federal Reserve, in which the Fed sells a security for immediate delivery to a dealer or a foreign central bank, with the agreement to buy back the same security at the same price at a predetermined time in the future (generally within seven days). This arrangement amounts to a temporary drain of reserves.
Matching systems Electronic systems duplicating the traditional brokers' market. A price shown by a bank is available to all traders.
Maturity date The date when a foreign exchange contract expires.
Merchandise Trade Balance An economic indicator that consists of the net difference between the exports and imports of a certain economy. The data includes food, raw materials and industrial supplies, consumer goods, autos, capital goods, and other merchandise.
Momentum An oscillator designed to measure the rate of price change, not the actual price level. This oscillator consists of the net difference between the current closing price and the oldest closing price from a predetermined period. The momentum is measured on an open scale around the zero line.
Moving average An average of a predetermined number of prices over a number of days, divided by the number of entries.
Moving average convergence-divergence (MACD) An oscillator that consists of two exponential moving averages (other inputs may be chosen by the trader as well) plotted against the zero line. The zero line represents the times the values of the two moving averages are identical. A buying signal is generated when this intersection is upward, whereas a selling signal occurs when the intersection takes place on the downside.
Moving averages oscillator An oscillator in which the values of two consecutive moving averages are subtracted from each other (the larger number of days from the previous one) and the new values are plotted.