A lot is a form of grouping of assets or financial instruments and securities equivalent in most cases to one hundred units of them. Often it allows its possibility of transfer in the markets.
The lot concept is often used in financial theory as a model for grouping stocks, options, currencies, and many other financial instruments commonly used in the markets.
In this sense, it can be defined that the lots act as units of measurement that represent important volumes of grouped financial assets.
The standard and most widespread accounting in the economic and financial sphere is the equivalence of one lot for every hundred titles. This is the case, for example, in the day-to-day life of the stock market, where a lot of shares of an energy company would be identified with 100 shares of the same.
In the case of the foreign exchange or FOREX market, the number of units per lot is usually higher. This level is around 100,000 units of the base currency in which it operates.
Presentation of a lot in the financial field
Taking into account the usual activity of the stock markets, the lots transferred between the different economic and financial agents take different forms:
- Complete or round lot : When the sale affects a grouping of 100 exact units. Furthermore, in the case of shares, as aliquots of a commercial company, they all have the same nature and value within said conglomerate. This would not be the case in the case of options, which may differ in elements such as their expiration dates or their price.
- Incomplete lot : This denomination is frequent in transactions that involve a transfer of less than a hundred units.
The placing on the markets of new lots is recurrent in actions such as capital increases, for example.
Valuation of lots
It is common for securities exchanges to be carried out jointly in the stock markets. In other words, rarely is a stock in a company bought or sold as a unit.
This happens because on many occasions the unit value of this type of element is small, so it is grouped so that it acquires a certain or significant value.
On the other hand, the most frequent is that the real value of the lots of financial assets is firmly regulated by institutions such as the stock market or other regulatory and financial arbitrage institutions.
In this sense, sometimes the regulations establish certain levels of minimum lots by law. That is, the minimum number of shares required to acquire to enter a particular market.
In practice, the regulated market establishes a lot of shares of a technology company valued at $ 100. Formally, it translates into 100 shares of 1 euro each and only affordable through the purchase of the entire lot for the aforementioned value.
Therefore, to open a position it is necessary to buy the entire lot and taking into account the fixed value.