Trade confirmation

The document or record that reports what was actually executed. It names the instrument and the direction, the quantity filled, the price obtained, the date and time of execution, the charges applied, and a reference by which the transaction can be identified afterwards. Conduct rules in most jurisdictions require a licensed firm to provide it promptly after execution, and to keep the underlying records for a stated period, so it exists as a regulatory obligation rather than as a courtesy.

Its value is evidential, and it is the difference between what was asked for and what happened. A deal ticket records the instruction as submitted. The confirmation records the outcome: the price actually obtained, which may differ from the one on the screen when the order was sent, and the quantity actually filled, which may be less than the quantity requested. Reading the two side by side is how slippage and a partial fill become visible as facts rather than as impressions.

Two things get confused. A confirmation is not a statement: it reports one transaction at the moment it happened, while a statement reports a period, including financing applied afterwards and any adjustment made later. And a confirmation is not the same as an execution report on a screen, which can be superseded. Where the two disagree, the firm's books and the confirmation are the record, which is why the reference number on it is the thing a query is raised against.