Abstract: A method of synthesizing metrics for a predetermined group of securities, said method comprising the steps of obtaining trade information for each security of the predetermined group of securities, the trade information suitably including for each trade an identifier for the security, the unit price, time of trade and volume of securities traded; accumulating said trade information for a desired time period and periodically storing the accumulated trade information in a store; calculating from the accumulated trade information a metric for said predetermined group of securities; and determining a standardised statistical measure, preferably a Z score, of said metric utilising the accumulated trade information stored in the time period. An apparatus for implementing the product and a computer software product containing instructions for execution of the method are also disclosed.