Types of Crosses

Currency Crosses

The U.S. dollar (USD) is the most actively traded currency in the multi-trillion-dollar daily foreign exchange market. In the past, investors or hedgers who wanted to trade a pair such as the euro vs. the yen, known as EUR/JPY, needed to do it through the dollar.

This meant that buying EUR and selling JPY required the following two steps:

1. Buy EUR and sell USD and
2. Buy the same amount of USD and sell JPY. Disadvantages of this approach include paying the bid/offer spread twice (once in each currency pair) and needing to deal for a USD amount rather than a EUR or JPY amount.

However, the dollar pairs are more actively traded than the cross, so in times of volatility or reduced liquidity, traders may still execute via the components.

The most actively traded currency crosses are the euro vs. the yen, British pound (GBP), and Swiss franc (CHF). Cross trades can be done for any spot, forward, or option transactions.

Golden Crosses and Death Crosses

Technical analysis involves the use of statistical analysis to make trading decisions. Technical analysts use a ton of data, often in the form of charts, to analyze stocks and markets. Technical traders learn to recognize these common patterns and what they might portend for the future performance of a stock or market.

A golden cross and a death cross are exact opposites. A golden cross indicates a long-term bull market going forward, while a death cross signals a long-term bear market. Both refer to the solid confirmation of a long-term trend by the occurrence of a short-term moving average crossing over a major long-term moving average.

Either cross may occur as a signal of a trend change, but they more frequently occur as a strong confirmation of a change in trend that has already taken place.

What Is the Meaning of Crossing Shares?

Crossing shares is when one broker pairs off a buy and sell order from two separate customers of the same stock at the same price. Before crossing the trade, the broker must offer the stock for a higher price than the bid price in the market. If the higher price is not accepted, then the broker can execute the orders.

Is Cross Trading Illegal?

A cross trade occurs when a buy and sell order for the same stock is offset from one another and not recorded on the exchange. This type of trade is not allowed on most of the large exchanges. A concern of cross-trading is that it may be used to “paint the tape,” whereby market players manipulate the price of a stock on purpose by buying and selling it amongst themselves.

What Is a Closing Cross?

A closing cross is a type of trade on the Nasdaq that determines the closing price of securities on the exchange. Nasdaq developed the closing cross to ensure that every security has a uniform closing price at the end of the day. Nasdaq stipulates that after 3:55 p.m., close orders may not be entered or altered, except for actual errors. The closing cross occurs at 4:00 p.m