Apr 7, 2021 11:57
3 yrs ago
43 viewers *
French term

décalage à la hausse de la fourchette

French to English Bus/Financial Finance (general)
Investigation into possible market manipulation. Please see the previous question for the full context.

"Ce déséquilibre du côté acheteur du carnet introduit par AAA avait pour effet d'initier un décalage à la hausse de la fourchette «meilleure limite à l'achat/meilleure limite à la vente"

I'm trying to get my head around what they mean by this. Firstly, do we talk of "spread" between the "best buy limit" and the "best sell limit" (if these are the correct terms)? Or simply of "gap" or "range"?

Secondly, what might be meant by décalage à la hausse? Does this mean simply that this gap/range/spread widens? Or does it mean that it is pushed upwards, relative to what it was before? I.e. (possibly in addition to a widening of this gap) that the lower end of the gap is now higher than it previously was? Or is there no justification for such an "additional" characteristic? It's just that, to me, décalage is a suspiciously fancy and/or specific word to choose in this context.

Discussion

Daryo Apr 8, 2021:
Agree with Rob Grayson if there is any "exponentiality" in this text, it's doing a damn good job at hiding itself / making itself invisible!

Rob Grayson Apr 8, 2021:
@SafeTex I have no idea where you get the idea of "exponential(ly)". There's nothing in the text to even hint at it.
SafeTex Apr 7, 2021:
@ all Hello

I've only browsed this question as there is so much but looking at your answers and what you seem to want to describe, two words came to my mind

1 Exponential(ly)
2 Distancing

Maybe this helps, maybe not.

SafeTex
Conor McAuley Apr 7, 2021:
Maybe Rob (Grayson) will be along to clarify this one.

Please note my low confidence...I suppose it could be argued that shift, movement and spread are relatively non-technical terms, but still, I prefer to err on the side of caution.

Proposed translations

+2
5 hrs
Selected

See answer

OK, so having gone back and read the longer explanatory text in the previous question, I've changed my answer. I thought it was about widening the spread between the best limit buy and sell prices, because that seemed to make best sense in the given context.

However, in the previous question we have the following additional context:

"Réalisation de transactions en sens inverse du déséquilibre côté acheteur, c'est-à-dire une vente de contrats (symétriquement, lorsque AAA a introduit un déséquilibre côté vendeur, elle réalise des transactions à l'achat)
Soit, au cours de la phase de création d'un déséquilibre, AAA a saisi des ordres de vente passifs à des prix supérieurs à la meilleure limite à l'achat.
L'impulsion à la hausse exercée via les ordres leurres dont AAA était à l'initiative conduisait les autres acheteurs à revoir à la hausse leur limite de prix jusqu'à rencontrer l'ordre de vente passif placé par AAA.
Soit, AAA n'avait pas placé d'ordres de vente passif lors de la création du déséquilibre.
L'impulsion exercée par le déséquilibre conduisait les autres intervenants à surenchérir en plaçant des ordres d'achat à des limites plus élevées que celles des ordres leurres."

It would seem from this that the effect of AAA's actions was to pull up the best limit buy orders placed by other market participants, thus artificially driving up the price of the instrument. That would suggest this is about the bid/ask spread not widening but being pushed upwards en bloc.

For the whole sentence, then, this would give us something like:

"This imbalance on the buy side of the order book created by AAA had the effect of beginning to push the "best limit buy/best limit sell" range upwards."

Apologies for the change of answer; if I'd seen this additional context before, I wouldn't have posted my first answer.

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Note added at 7 hrs (2021-04-07 19:34:00 GMT)
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Note to asker: in response to your second comment, I used "range" rather than spread" simply because when you talk about a "spread", normally the focus is on the size of the spread, whereas in this case the that's not so much in focus (because the whole of the spread/range between the bid and ask prices is moving upwards). So I just felt using "range" instead of "spread" might be a good way to avoid putting the focus on the size of the spread.

(It's also worth noting that French analysts will most often use "écart" for "spread" (and occasionally "différentiel"); in my experience it's relatively rare [though perhaps not entirely unheard of] for them to use "fourchette" when referring specifically to a spread.)
Note from asker:
Thanks for taking the trouble to do this! Kind of justifies my sensing something funny or ambiguous about the expression. This is not my specialist area so the actual techniques alleged to be used weren't as clear as they obviously are to you (nor their implications for this expression's meaning).
PS I notice you've used "range" rather than "spread" in your suggested solution. Is this deliberate? I realise they mean the same in an absolute sense, but I initially had a bit a doubt whether the jargon word "spread" was actually used in relation to limits... prices, yes, clearly... but limits?
Peer comment(s):

disagree Francois Boye : words have a meaning in all languages. Why do you skip the word 'décalage'?
1 hr
Your comment is baffling, since I haven't "skipped" anything at all. In this context, a "décalage à la hausse" is no more or less than an upward shift.
agree writeaway
16 hrs
agree Daryo : it confirms what the meaning of term used would suggest: "décalage à la hausse / à la baisse" = the whole "fourchette" gets shifted upward / downward // the widening of "la fourchette" would have been "l'augmentation / l'élargissement de ..."
20 hrs
Exactement
agree Yvonne Gallagher : nice to see informed opinion
4 days
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
-1
50 mins

an upward shift/movement in the xxxxxxxxxxxx spread

xxxxxxxxxxxx = "meilleure limite à l'achat/meilleure limite à la vente"

Spread:

Bid vs Offer Price | Top 4 Differences (with Infographics)https://www.wallstreetmojo.com › bi...
Traduire cette page
Here we discuss the top differences between bid and offer price along with ... For liquid securities, the ***difference in Bid-Offer Price (spread)*** is narrow, whereas,

Plus tons of ghits.


Décalage: imagine a block of rock moving slightly. It is still the same width, length and height, it has just moved. This is the easiest way to explain "décalage". In English we don't quite have a matching word.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2021-04-07 14:11:14 GMT)
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To Mpoma: initially I was convinced by "rise", since "spread" conveys the meaning of a "block" or a "bracket" (in the sense of a range of prices or offers) anyway. BUT "upward shift", as you say, stays close to the French.
"Décalé", I would suggest, without looking up the full meaning of the word, means something, someone, that is unusually -- perhaps even improperly -- different to some kind of perceived norm -- think of eccentric, maverick, leftfield, etc.
Unfortunately there's no way to convey this in English. (That I know of.)
Note from asker:
Thanks. Normal words for *décalage* are "shift", "offset", "discrepancy". "Upward shift" has the virtue that it literally translates the French, possibly preserving the problem: why not (other than an ingrained reflex to complicate for the sake of it) just say "rise" (*hausse*)?
Peer comment(s):

disagree Daryo : whatever "décalé" would mean in slang/argot, in basic maths it's simply a "translation" - here an upward movement of BOTH limits of this "spread of prices".
6 days
Thanks Daryo, you've just described perfectly what a shift is in this context!
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-1
2 hrs
French term (edited): déséquilibre initie un décalage à la hausse de la fourchette meilleure limite achat/vente

lack of equilibrium gives rise to an increase between A and B, - pushes A and B further apart

A "décalage" describes a gap, a difference, a relationship between at least two situations, two points. There is a notion of comparison, so "between" is useful.

I agree with Colin's understanding of the dynamic nature of what is going on.
A process is being set in motion (initier) and it is an increase (à la hausse). Cf. Colin's "upward shift/movement". The gap between A and B expands, increases.
A and B are simply two prongs on the fork!

- The imbalance/lack of balance causes the gap/the difference between A and B to increase.
- A and B are pushed further apart by the imbalance.

- the imbalance gives rise to an increase in the gap between A and B
- the lack of balance causes the


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Note added at 2 hrs (2021-04-07 14:38:34 GMT)
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Oopsie. I should have edited the last two elements out.
Peer comment(s):

disagree Daryo : no, here it's BOTH the upper and lower "limit prices" that get pushed up - these market manipulators are not making money from "widening the spread", but from artificially inflating prices, pushing the whole spread (both limits) up.
6 days
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-1
3 hrs

a lagged widening of the spread between...

Unlike the text written in French, bid-ask spread widens. That's how its increase is expressed in finance.

Bid-ask spreads can widen during times of heightened market risk or increased market volatility. If market makers are required to take extra steps to facilitate their trades during periods of volatility, spreads of the underlying securities may be wider, which will mean wider spreads on the ETF.

I could have used the term delayed instead of lagged. But lagged is the statistical concept used in finance.

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Note added at 7 hrs (2021-04-07 19:54:26 GMT)
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Décalage

B.− Action de déplacer dans l'espace ou dans le temps; résultat de cette action. Décalage horaire; décalage vers l'avant. − C'est le voyage en avion qui m'a fatiguée, (...) et puis il y a ce décalage des heures (Beauvoir, Mandarins,1954, p. 549).

− Fig. Manque de concordance entre deux faits, deux choses. Le décalage entre nos théories et nos expériences (Perroux, L'Écon. XXes.,1964, p. 27).

Source: Le Dictionnaire TLFI
Peer comment(s):

neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : Thank you for the "bid-ask spread". "Widening of the spread" makes sense. This may become an "agree", but cld you explain why "delayed/lagged" here please? (Disc section?).
39 mins
delayed/lagged means that AAA decision to buy and the widening spread do not take place at the same time.
disagree Rob Grayson : Nothing to do with a lag/delay IMO. You do realise "décalage" doesn't have to refer to a *time* difference, right? (And that a time difference makes no sense in this context…)
1 hr
agree Adrian MM. : time-lagged as in décalage meaning a timing difference on a/cs.
3 hrs
Thanks!
disagree Daryo : Action de déplacer dans l'espace ou dans le temps // I can't see why you would assume that in this ST it's about "shift / movement ..." on the time axis?
21 hrs
Wrong! Décalage = Manque de concordance entre deux faits, deux choses. See my response to Nikki
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