Trading Glossary

The cash value in a trading account before unrealized open-position profit or loss is fully reflected.

The base currency used to value your deposits, withdrawals, fees, margin, and reports.

A negative account state where losses exceed available funds, usually after fast markets, gaps, or excessive leverage.

A market phase where stronger buyers gradually absorb supply, often before an advance.

Trading decisions or order execution handled by coded rules instead of manual clicks.

Return generated above a benchmark or expected risk-adjusted return.

Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, often with distinct technology, token economics, or risk profile.

Attempting to profit from price differences for the same or similar asset across venues or instruments.

The lowest price currently available to buy an instrument from sellers.

A broad group of instruments with similar economic characteristics, such as forex, equities, indices, commodities, bonds, or crypto.

An option whose strike price is close to the current price of the underlying asset.

Trader shorthand for the Australian dollar, especially the AUD/USD currency pair.

A volatility indicator that estimates the average size of recent price ranges.

Testing a trading idea on historical data to estimate how it might have performed.

A record of a country’s transactions with the rest of the world, including trade, investment flows, and reserves.

A chart type that displays open, high, low, and close prices for each period.

The first currency in a pair; it is the currency being bought or sold against the quote currency.

One hundredth of one percentage point, commonly used for interest rates and yields.

A sustained period of falling prices and negative sentiment.

A false downside break that lures short sellers before price reverses upward.

A measure of how much an asset tends to move relative to a benchmark.

The highest price currently available to sell an instrument to buyers.

The difference between the bid and ask price, representing an immediate transaction cost.

Shares of a large, established company with a long operating history and strong market recognition.

A volatility envelope built around a moving average, often used to identify expansion, contraction, or stretched prices.

A move beyond a defined support, resistance, range, or chart pattern boundary.

A firm that provides access to markets or derivatives platforms and executes or routes client orders.

A sustained period of rising prices and positive sentiment.

An instruction to buy below the current market price at a specified level or better.

An instruction to buy above the current market price, usually to enter on upside momentum.

Trader nickname for GBP/USD, originating from historical transatlantic communications.

A price bar that visually shows open, high, low, and close, often used for pattern recognition.

Borrowing or selling a lower-yielding currency to buy a higher-yielding currency, seeking interest-rate differential gains.

A spot-style quote for an equity index, distinct from futures contracts on that index.

An institution responsible for monetary policy, interest rates, currency stability, and often banking-system oversight.

A contract for difference that lets traders speculate on price movement without owning the underlying asset.

A price structure formed by parallel support and resistance lines.

A fee charged by a broker for executing a trade, separate from spread or financing.

A raw material or primary product traded in markets, such as oil, gold, copper, wheat, or natural gas.

The notional quantity represented by one contract or lot.

The degree to which two instruments move together or opposite each other.

A forex pair that does not include the US dollar.

A digital asset secured by cryptography and typically transferred on a blockchain network.

A quotation showing the exchange rate between two currencies.

Opening and closing positions within the same trading day to avoid overnight exposure.

A temporary rebound during a broader downtrend that does not reverse the main bearish structure.

A market participant or firm that quotes prices and may take the other side of client trades.

An option Greek measuring how much an option price may change for a one-unit move in the underlying.

A practice account using simulated funds to test platforms, orders, and strategies without real capital risk.

A financial instrument whose value is based on an underlying asset, rate, index, or event.

A disagreement between price movement and an indicator, often watched as a warning of momentum change.

A distribution of company earnings to shareholders, usually paid in cash or additional shares.

An index measuring the US dollar against a basket of major currencies.

The decline from an account or strategy peak to a later low.

An electronic communication network that matches buy and sell orders from market participants.

A schedule of macroeconomic releases, central-bank events, and other market-moving data.

Actual exposure relative to account equity, regardless of maximum leverage offered by the broker.

A technical-analysis framework that interprets trends and corrections as recurring wave structures.

Account value including balance plus or minus unrealized profit or loss.

An exchange-traded fund that holds a basket of securities or tracks an index, sector, commodity, or strategy.

The price of one currency expressed in terms of another currency.

The process by which an order is filled in the market or by a broker.

An automated trading program commonly used on MetaTrader platforms.

The amount of market risk a trader has through open positions.

A price imbalance where rapid movement leaves a zone that some traders expect price may revisit.

The central bank of the United States, closely watched for monetary policy and dollar impact.

Horizontal levels based on Fibonacci ratios used to estimate potential pullback zones.

The completed execution of an order, either fully or partially.

A tradable contract or asset such as a currency pair, stock, index, commodity, bond, ETF, option, future, or CFD.

A cost or credit applied for holding leveraged or derivative positions beyond a specified time.

Unrealized gain or loss on open positions before they are closed.

The Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed body that sets US monetary policy.

The global foreign exchange market where currencies are traded in pairs.

A customized agreement to exchange an asset or currency at a future date and price.

Account equity not currently locked as margin for open positions.

Evaluating markets through economic data, earnings, policy, valuation, supply-demand, and news drivers.

A standardized exchange-traded agreement to buy or sell an asset at a future date.

An option Greek measuring how quickly delta changes as the underlying price moves.

A price jump between trading sessions or candles where little or no trading occurred.

Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output.

Another term for leverage, describing exposure that is larger than deposited capital.

The current cash-market price of gold, commonly quoted as XAU/USD.

An order instruction that remains active until filled, cancelled, or expired under broker rules.

The total absolute value of all open positions before netting longs and shorts.

A stop order that guarantees the exit price, usually for an additional premium and subject to broker rules.

Policy language or action suggesting tighter monetary policy, higher rates, or inflation concern.

A reversal chart pattern with a peak, higher peak, and lower peak around a neckline.

A position intended to reduce or offset risk in another position or portfolio.

A candle-style chart that smooths price action to make trends easier to visualize.

Automated trading that uses speed, infrastructure, and algorithms to execute many orders very quickly.

Selling immediately at the current bid price.

The cost or credit for keeping a leveraged position open after the daily rollover time.

A multi-line indicator used to assess trend, support, resistance, and momentum.

A market with limited buyers and sellers, often causing wider spreads and more slippage.

The market’s expected future volatility implied by option prices.

An option with intrinsic value: calls below the underlying price or puts above it.

A benchmark that tracks the performance of a group of securities.

A sustained rise in the general price level of goods and services.

The amount required to open a leveraged position.

A central-bank announcement of its policy rate and often its policy outlook.

Activity occurring within a single trading day.

The expected holding period for a trade, strategy, or investment.

The currency of Japan, commonly traded in pairs such as USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, and GBP/JPY.

A US labor-market release showing new unemployment benefit claims.

Recording trades, decisions, emotions, screenshots, and statistics to improve process discipline.

A volatility channel typically built from an exponential moving average and ATR.

Trader nickname for the New Zealand dollar, especially NZD/USD.

Know Your Customer checks used by financial firms to verify identity and comply with regulation.

An indicator that responds after price has already moved, often used for confirmation.

The delay between sending an order or data request and receiving execution or response.

Using borrowed or broker-provided exposure so a smaller deposit controls a larger position.

An instruction to buy or sell at a specified price or better.

Forced closing of positions when margin requirements are not met.

The ease of trading an instrument without significantly affecting its price.

A bank, institution, or venue that supplies tradable bid and ask prices.

A trade that benefits when the instrument price rises.

A standardized trade size, especially in forex.

A momentum indicator based on moving-average relationships, often used for trend confirmation and signal changes.

Minimum equity required to keep a leveraged position open.

Capital set aside as collateral to open or maintain leveraged exposure.

A warning or requirement to add funds or reduce positions when account equity falls too low.

Revaluing open positions at current market prices to calculate unrealized profit, loss, and margin.

Visible buy and sell interest at different price levels in an order book.

A participant that provides continuous bid and ask prices and may earn the spread.

An instruction to buy or sell immediately at the best available price.

A popular trading platform family used for forex and CFD charting, order placement, and automation.

An indicator that smooths price by averaging it over a chosen number of periods.

Directional exposure after offsetting long and short positions.

A position accounting mode where opposite trades in the same instrument reduce one combined position.

US non-farm payrolls, a major monthly employment report watched by global traders.

A broker model where orders are routed to external liquidity rather than manually handled by a dealing desk.

The total market value controlled by a position.

One-cancels-the-other order: if one linked order executes, the other is automatically cancelled.

Another name for the ask price, the price available to buy.

A trade that has been entered but not yet closed.

A list of resting buy and sell orders organized by price level.

The platform window or form used to enter trade size, order type, stop loss, and take profit.

An indicator that moves within or around a range to show momentum or overextended conditions.

An option with no intrinsic value: calls above the underlying price or puts below it.

A condition where price or an indicator suggests upward momentum may be stretched.

A position kept open after the market’s daily rollover or close.

A condition where price or an indicator suggests downward momentum may be stretched.

A relative-value strategy that trades two related instruments against each other.

Simulated trading used to practice strategy and execution without real money.

A trend-following indicator that plots dots to suggest potential trailing stops or reversals.

An order set to execute only if future price conditions are met.

A standard unit of price movement in forex, usually the fourth decimal place for most pairs.

The monetary value of one pip movement for a position size.

A calculated support/resistance framework based on prior high, low, and close.

Purchasing Managers’ Index, a survey-based indicator of business activity.

A collection of open positions or investments held by a trader or investor.

The quantity traded, chosen to align risk with account size and stop distance.

Analyzing raw price movement, structure, candles, and levels without relying heavily on indicators.

Gross profit divided by gross loss, used to evaluate a trading system.

A temporary move against the prevailing trend.

An option giving the holder the right, not obligation, to sell the underlying at a strike price.

Central-bank asset purchases intended to ease financial conditions and support liquidity.

Central-bank balance-sheet reduction intended to withdraw liquidity or tighten financial conditions.

A displayed bid and ask price for an instrument.

The second currency in a pair; it expresses the price of one unit of the base currency.

A market condition where price moves between support and resistance instead of trending.

The interest-rate gap between two currencies, often relevant to carry and forward pricing.

Profit or loss locked in after closing a trade.

A broker response offering a new price when the requested price is no longer available.

A price area where selling pressure has previously limited upward movement.

An individual trader using personal capital rather than trading for an institution.

Rules and processes used to control losses, position size, leverage, and exposure.

Comparison of potential loss to potential gain on a trade.

The process of extending a forex position beyond the settlement cut-off, often creating swap charges or credits.

Relative Strength Index, a momentum oscillator used to gauge speed and magnitude of price changes.

A short-term trading style seeking small gains from frequent trades.

The overall mood or positioning bias of market participants.

A risk-adjusted performance metric comparing excess return to volatility.

A trade that benefits when the instrument price falls.

The difference between expected execution price and actual fill price.

The difference between bid and ask prices.

A derivative format, common in the UK and Ireland, where profit or loss is based on stake per point of price movement.

An order designed to close a position if price moves against it beyond a chosen level.

A broker-defined margin threshold where positions may be automatically closed.

A price area where buying pressure has previously limited downward movement.

An overnight debit or credit reflecting interest-rate differences and broker financing rules.

Holding trades for several days or weeks to capture medium-term price swings.

A currency exposure constructed from two or more related pairs instead of trading the direct pair.

An order to close a position at a chosen favorable price to lock in gains.

Studying price, volume, patterns, and indicators to form trading decisions.

An option Greek measuring expected time-decay impact on an option price.

The smallest price movement or a single change in quoted price, depending on market context.

A stop order that moves with favorable price movement to help protect gains.

Total cost of entering, holding, and exiting a trade, including spread, commission, slippage, and financing.

A sustained directional tendency in price, either upward, downward, or sideways.

A line drawn across swing highs or lows to visualize trend direction or dynamic support/resistance.

The asset, index, or rate that determines the value of a derivative.

Profit or loss on an open position that has not yet been closed.

A trade or quote occurring at a higher price than the previous one.

A benchmark tracking the US dollar against selected major currencies.

The portion of account equity currently reserved to support open leveraged positions.

A statistical estimate of potential portfolio loss over a time period at a given confidence level.

An option Greek measuring sensitivity to changes in implied volatility.

A remote server used to keep trading platforms, bots, or expert advisors running continuously.

The degree of price variation over time.

The amount traded during a period, measured in contracts, shares, ticks, or broker-specific activity.

Volume-weighted average price, a benchmark showing the average traded price weighted by volume.

A rapid move in one direction followed by a sharp reversal, often causing false signals.

A larger-than-normal gap between bid and ask, often during illiquidity or news.

The percentage of trades that close profitably.

An active pending order waiting in the platform or market.

West Texas Intermediate, a benchmark grade of US crude oil.

The spot silver price quoted against the US dollar.

The spot gold price quoted against the US dollar.

An electronic trading venue operated by Deutsche Börse for German and European securities.

A currency pair involving the Japanese yen but not necessarily the US dollar.

Income return on a bond or investment, often expressed as a percentage.

A line showing bond yields across maturities, used to assess rate expectations and economic outlook.

Year over year, comparing data with the same period one year earlier.

A bond sold at a discount that pays no periodic coupon and matures at face value.

A situation where one participant’s gain equals another participant’s loss before costs.

A charting tool that filters smaller price movements to highlight major swings.