I was helping my oldest with some homework last night and I said “spot” when reading a decimal point in a price. “Thirty-four spot fifty-two” or whatever the number was. He asked me why I said spot and I had no idea. Professors used it in various accounting/finance classes and it’s common useage with various traders, settlement groups, PM’s I interact with, but I’ve never thought about why. I could speculate, but I’m curious if anyone knows the historical origins.
I have just found it quicker to get out sentences using spot rather than point, but am interested if anyone would know this. I can’t imagine there would be much on it as point, dot, spot are all really acceptible.
I have never encountered this outside of the finance community, and really not outside of currency traders.
I’m just guessing here, but it might be because some countries use a period to mark off decimals from the integer part of numbers (e.g. 1,200.00) , while others use commas (e.g. 1.200,00). So in foreign exchange, it might be a way to communicate a division of integer from decimal without having to worry about whether one should be using points vs commas.
Although I grew up in a place where 1,200.00 was the norm, I often think that 1.200,00 is a more logical notation, because the period is less intrusive, and the comma marks a bigger distinction.
I have never heard of this. I’m reporting this thread as possibly anti-American.
This was my speculation as well.
which countries use the 1.200,00 notation?
Brazil definitely does, and I’m pretty sure a number of European countries do.
I don’t vouch for the list, but wikipedia’s entry for “decimal point” has this:
Countries where a comma “,” is used as decimal mark include:
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Canada (when using French)
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia (comma used officially, but both forms are in use)
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- East Timor
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Faroes
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Georgia
- Greece
- Greenland
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg (uses both marks officially)
- Macau (in Portuguese text)
- Macedonia
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Switzerland (other than Swiss currency)
- Sweden
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
I dont see Freedomtown, U.S.A. on that list… so it’s clearly the loser list.
Wait until he tells his teacher than 8/10 converted to a percentage is 80bps. I accidentally slip with “spot” and “bips” all the time. Happens when the majority of your number usage is at work.
^ And I acknowledge 8/10 isn’t 80bps… This is just my money market trading mind stuck in a world that can’t comprehend numbers over 1%.
My wife does risk consulting in the mortgage world. She hates when I use “bips” when talking about rates. Apparently it’s not used over there.
I’ve always found the usage of “spot” to be annoying. Then again, others may be annoyed with me when I don’t use “spot” while they do.
I never use “bips” outside of finance contexts, but then it’s pretty rare that I’d need to.
^ I thought it was some cheesy American trader thing until I was in the biz long enough and found myself using it. It is terrible. But its just part of the language.
This the first time I have ever heard the term “spot” when referring to a decimal. That’s even dumber than the metric system. “Point” is much better.
I think your comma missed the point. 
i tend to say “dot”
This was one of the hardest things to re-learn.
I prefer to use point over spot. For some reason when I hear spot, I associate it with space and instinctively want to leave a space between digits.
Every trader I talk to says spot. As for why… no Idea.