2. Anatomy of a trade report
Every report answers the same handful of questions, set out below. The template guide lists every column that answers them.
| Question | Template columns |
|---|---|
| Which report is this? | report_status, transaction_reference |
| Who carried out the trade? | executing_entity_lei |
| Who bought, and who sold? | the buyer_... and seller_... columns |
| Did someone decide for the buyer or seller? | the ..._decision_maker_... columns |
| When? | trading_date_time |
| In what capacity did your firm act? | trading_capacity |
| How much, and at what price? | quantity, price and their types and currencies |
| Where? | venue, venue_transaction_id |
| What instrument? | instrument_isin, or a name and CFI code for instruments without one |
| Who in your firm made the decisions? | investment_decision_..., execution_decision_... |
One row, one report
Each row in your file is one report, meaning one trade from your firm's point of view. If you bought 1,000 shares for three clients in one order and then allocated them, there is normally one report for the market trade and one for each client allocation. Ask us if you are unsure how your trades break down.
Your own reference
The transaction_reference is yours. Pick a scheme that gives every trade a unique reference that never changes, usually the deal ID in your dealing system. The reference is how a report is found again if you need to cancel or correct it.
A minimal example
A share bought through your broker for a client company, on the client's instruction. This is the usual shape for a small firm without its own exchange membership:
| Column | Value |
|---|---|
| report_status | NEWT |
| transaction_reference | DEAL0001 |
| executing_entity_lei | your LEI |
| buyer_id / buyer_id_type / buyer_is_client | the client's LEI / LEI / Y |
| seller_id / seller_id_type / seller_is_client | your broker's LEI / LEI / N |
| trading_date_time | 2026-09-01T10:02:00Z |
| trading_capacity | AOTC |
| quantity / quantity_type | 100 / UNIT |
| price / price_type / price_currency | 12.5 / MONE / GBP |
| venue | XOFF |
| instrument_isin | GB0002634946 |
If you executed on a UK or EU exchange under your own membership, the venue would be its MIC, you would add the venue's trade code in venue_transaction_id, and the time would run to at least the millisecond. The template guide has that example too.
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Another question? Ask your own AI assistant: tell it to read basicreporting.com/llms-full.txt.