composite tape
Composite tape
See: Tape
Copyright © 2012, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.
Composite Tape
A record of the transactions occurring on an exchange on a given trading day, updated in real time or with only a slight delay. Before electronic tickers became common, most records of trading were printed out on strips of paper known as the composite tape. It is more common now to refer to an exchange's live record as a ticker. When tape was common, trading volume sometimes became so heavy for a security that the tape publicly announcing quotes was delayed by a significant amount of time, usually a minute or two. This was called a tape is late situation.
Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved
composite tape
A security price reporting service that includes all transactions in a security on each of the exchanges and in the over-the-counter market. A composite tape is structured to provide a complete picture of a security's price and volume activity rather than limiting the information to that which occurs on a single exchange.
Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.