Big figure

A currency rate is quoted to several decimal places and, in conversation, only the final digits are said aloud. The digits left out are the big figure, or handle. A dealer quoting a euro rate as forty two, forty three and a half is stating the tail and assuming both parties know the figure in front of it. The convention exists because the leading digits are stable across a normal session while the tail changes many times a second, and repeating them would slow every quote down.

The shorthand carries an obvious hazard, and the market has a name for the accident: a big figure error, in which two parties agree a price on different handles. Electronic dealing systems display the full number for that reason, and a voice quote taken near a round level is normally stated in full, since that is precisely the moment the handle is about to change.

Round numbers at a handle boundary attract attention independently of the shorthand. Order books tend to carry more resting interest at them, so price often pauses there, and stop instructions accumulate just beyond. That describes where instructions collect rather than what price will do next, the effect is a matter of degree rather than something visible on every approach, and it is contested how much of it survives once the instruments and periods studied are varied.