I am watching the programme on BBC2 about novice traders...

[notnowbernard]

And I haven't got a bloody clue what anyone is on about on there

I really am ignorant about anything economic/financial in nature

I don't even get the basic terminology

the main terminology,

Positions : This is just the cummulative number of shares that you own at the time

Long : This is if you have bought shares and you will make money by teh prices rising.

Short : This is if you have sold shares that you don't actually own yet and will make money if the price goes down, because when you have to buy the shares to commit to your original sale you will pay less for what you are selling to others for more.

when they say 6 spot 2 it just means point i.e. 6.2

they told them off for not hedging all their bank deals, hedging is just covering your arse and reducing your risk by playing both sides of the market.

If they are talking about the p and l but they havn't actually liquidated their shares yet it is just that they are valueing the positions at a current market price so it is unrealised until they actually close out those positions.

Please tell me that real traders don't spend that much time just staring at the screen, apparently doing nothing. Otherwise their high salaries ARE the biggest con of the century...