Trading glossary
Plain-English definitions of 131 trading terms — from pip, spread and leverage to RSI, order blocks and everything in between. Every entry is written for beginners, kept neutral, and honest about risk. Tap any term for a fuller explanation and related concepts.
A
Using automated programs to place trades by predefined rules.
The lowest price a seller is currently willing to accept.
An indicator measuring trend strength, regardless of direction.
An indicator that measures how much an instrument typically moves.
B
Testing a strategy on historical data to see how it would have done.
The cash in your account from closed trades, before open P&L.
The first currency in a pair — the one being priced.
A market in a sustained downtrend, often defined as a 20% fall.
The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay.
The first and largest cryptocurrency, launched in 2009.
A shared, tamper-resistant digital ledger behind cryptocurrencies.
A moving average with volatility bands plotted above and below it.
A loan to a government or company that pays interest over time.
Price breaking a prior swing point, confirming the trend continues.
When price moves decisively beyond a support or resistance level.
A market in a sustained uptrend, with rising prices and optimism.
C
A chart bar showing the open, high, low and close for a period.
Profiting from the interest-rate gap between two currencies.
A leveraged contract to exchange the price change of an asset, without owning it.
A per-trade fee some brokers charge on top of, or instead of, the spread.
A physical raw material traded on markets, like gold or oil.
Automatically mirroring the trades of another, more experienced trader.
A moderate fall in price, often defined as a drop of around 10%.
How closely two instruments tend to move together.
A digital asset like Bitcoin, secured by cryptography on a blockchain.
Two currencies quoted together, showing the price of one in the other.
D
An order that expires at the end of the trading day if unfilled.
Opening and closing trades within the same day, holding nothing overnight.
A practice account with virtual funds to trade in real market conditions.
When price and an indicator move in opposite directions.
Spreading risk across different assets so no single one can sink you.
A share of company profits paid out to shareholders.
A candlestick where the open and close are almost equal.
The drop from a peak to a trough in your account value.
E
A broker that routes orders directly to a network of liquidity providers.
A schedule of upcoming data releases and events that can move markets.
A two-candle reversal signal where one candle fully covers the prior one.
Your account balance adjusted for the profit or loss on open trades.
A fund holding many assets that trades on an exchange like a share.
The average amount you can expect to win or lose per trade.
A moving average that weights recent prices more heavily.
The total amount of money at risk across your open positions.
F
An imbalance on the chart left by a fast move that price may revisit.
Horizontal levels used to estimate where a pullback might end.
An order that must execute in full immediately or be cancelled.
Fear of missing out — chasing a move for fear of being left behind.
The global market for trading one currency against another.
The money in your account still available to open new trades.
Assessing an asset's value from economic and financial data.
A standardised contract to buy or sell an asset at a set future date and price.
G
H
I
L
A view of the buy and sell orders queued at different prices.
Borrowed exposure that lets you control a large position with a small deposit.
How many times your deposit your position size can be, e.g. 30:1.
The danger that leverage magnifies losses as much as gains.
An order to trade only at a specified price or better.
The forced closing of positions when your account runs out of margin.
How easily an asset can be traded without moving its price.
A quick move to grab stop orders before reversing the other way.
Buying an asset expecting its price to rise so you can sell higher.
A standard trade size unit; in forex one standard lot is 100,000 units.
The quantity of a trade, which sets how much each pip is worth.
M
A trend-and-momentum indicator built from two moving averages.
The minimum equity you must keep to hold a leveraged position open.
The deposit a broker holds to keep a leveraged position open.
A broker warning that your equity is too low to support open trades.
A firm that quotes both buy and sell prices to provide liquidity.
An order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price.
The pattern of highs and lows that defines a trend or range.
The speed and strength behind a price move.
A line that smooths price by averaging it over a set number of periods.
N
O
A price zone where large institutional orders are thought to have entered.
The real-time stream of buy and sell orders hitting the market.
The cost of funding a leveraged CFD or margin position held overnight.
Placing too many trades, often out of boredom or emotion.
P
The money you have gained or lost on your trades.
Practising trades with fake money to learn without financial risk.
A candle with a long wick showing rejection of a price level.
The smallest standard price move in most currency pairs.
How much money one pip of movement is worth for your position.
A single unit of price movement, used for indices, stocks and pips.
An open trade you currently hold in the market.
Choosing how large a trade to place based on your risk per trade.
Holding trades for weeks to months based on a long-term view.
Whether price is in the expensive or cheap half of a range.
A temporary move against the trend before it resumes.
R
Oversight of brokers by financial authorities to protect clients.
A momentum oscillator from 0–100 gauging overbought and oversold conditions.
A price level where selling has tended to stop an advance.
Trying to win back a loss quickly by trading emotionally.
The rules and habits that control how much you can lose.
How much you stand to gain compared with what you risk on a trade.
The daily process of carrying a position past the session close.
S
A style of taking many tiny, very short-term trades for small gains.
Client money kept separate from the broker's own operating money.
Selling an asset you expect to fall, aiming to buy it back cheaper.
The difference between your expected fill price and the actual one.
A setting limiting how much price slippage you'll accept on an order.
A term for large institutional players assumed to move markets.
The gap between the bid and ask price — a built-in cost of trading.
A leveraged way to bet a stake per point on a market's direction.
The actual money the bid-ask spread costs you on a trade.
A momentum tool comparing the close to a recent high-low range.
A unit of ownership in a company.
An order that triggers a market order once a set price is reached.
A stop that triggers a limit order rather than a market order.
A preset order that closes a losing trade to cap your loss.
A price level where buying has tended to stop a decline.
Interest paid or earned for holding a leveraged position overnight.
Holding trades for days to weeks to capture larger price swings.
T
A preset order that closes a winning trade at your target price.
Studying price charts and patterns to inform trading decisions.
The minimum price increment an instrument can move.
Sticking to your plan and rules even when emotions push otherwise.
A record of your trades used to learn from wins and mistakes.
A written set of rules for what, when and how much you trade.
A stop-loss that follows price in your favour to lock in gains.
The general direction a market is moving over time.
U
V
W
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