Electronic Blue Sheet - EBS

It's not a digital compendium of swear words or an online list of depression symptoms. Instead, it refers to a method U.S. regulators use to get info on what financial professionals are doing.

A regulator (like the SEC) wants to find out information about a certain stock trade. So they send out an EBS: an electronic request for details about the transactions.

The blue sheets (called "blue sheets" because, back when the requests were mailed out on actual paper, the color of the paper was blue) might go to such financial players as brokers, clearing firms, or market makers. Companies receiving the EBS would then provide the pertinent information...usually stuff like the name of the stock, the price of the stock at the time of transaction, when the transaction took place, and the number of shares involved.

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