SEAQ : London Stock Exchange Automated Quotation SystemThere are now over 1,500 listed companies whose bid and offer prices are quoted on SEAQ. SEAQ is essentially a price-information service and not a trading system. It can be accessed through a number of screen based information services. Trades are therefore carried out either by phone or online. SEAQ provides: - prices quoted by market makers - the number of trades reported (above £1,000 in value) - the best bid/offer prices with upto three market makers prepared to deal - an automatic trade execution service As might be understood, this is a technical area of the market and as such, for relative outsiders - such as your author - it is not entirely clear what the role of SEAQ is. On a page (listed below) about market makers, we comment that their role has changed significantly as technology has improved and shares can be bought and sold electronically without a presence on the 'market' floor. It is our understanding that the role of SEAQ is in large part to provide a monopoly over orders from the general public (the public cannot simply buy or sell direct on the market themselves). However, we may have misunderstood this role - if that is the case, we apologise. It would be fair to say that unless you plan to become a market maker or stock broker, the chances of you needing to know the above information is quite slim. Obviously, some pages and information I feel that I need to add for the sake of clarity. Apologies! To read more about the LSE and FTSE, please visit the following pages:
We Recommend: Finance Blog | Trading Software | Find Stockbrokers Return To Our Homepages: Stock Market | Investment-For-Beginners |