Trading and crypto glossary

The words that come up in my videos and on any exchange, each explained in one line. Search for the one you don’t understand or browse a whole category.

386 terms in 9 categories

Basic concepts 30

ATH: All-time high price.
ATL: All-time low price.
Bear Market: A prolonged period of downward trend.
Bears: Market participants who expect prices to fall.
Black swan: An extremely hard-to-predict, high-impact event; not necessarily negative.
Bull Market: A prolonged period of upward trend.
Bulls: Market participants who expect prices to rise.
Capitulation: Mass selling driven by fear or exhaustion.
Correction: A move against the main trend.
Crash: A sudden and steep fall.
Dead cat bounce: A temporary recovery within a downtrend that then continues.
Demand: Buying interest in an asset.
Downtrend: Movement with generally falling highs and lows.
FOMO: Fear of missing out on an opportunity.
FUD: Fear, uncertainty and doubt that affect sentiment.
Liquidity: How easily an asset can be traded without moving its price too much.
Market capitalisation: Price multiplied by the units in circulation.
Market sentiment: The prevailing optimism or pessimism among participants.
Price discovery: The process by which buyers and sellers set the price.
Primary market: The market where assets are issued for the first time.
Rally: A strong or sustained rise in price.
Secondary market: The market where already issued assets are traded.
Sideways market: Movement with no clear trend, within a range.
Strong hands: Informal expression for large participants with capital.
Supply: The amount of an asset available for sale.
Uptrend: Movement with generally rising highs and lows.
Volatility: The size of price swings.
Volume: The amount traded over a period.
Weak hands: Informal expression for those who sell quickly out of fear.
Whales: Participants with large positions able to influence the market.

Orders and execution 41

Arbitrage: Taking advantage of price differences between markets.
Averaging: Changing the average price by adding to a position.Read the guide: DCA in crypto: what it is and how to calculate your average buy price
Break Even: The point of zero net result, after costs.
DCA: Periodic purchases of a fixed amount.Read the guide: DCA in crypto: what it is and how to calculate your average buy price
Entry: The price or moment at which a trade is opened.
Execution VWAP: A strategy that distributes orders according to traded volume.
Exit: The price or moment at which a trade is closed.
FOK: An order that must be filled in full immediately or cancelled.
Futures: Derivatives whose value depends on an underlying asset.Read the guide: Spot or futures: how they differ
GTC: An order that stays valid until it is filled or cancelled.
Hedging: Cover taken to reduce a financial risk.
Iceberg order: A large order shown to the market in small parts.
IOC: An order that fills whatever it can immediately and cancels the rest.
Limit order: An order that sets a maximum buy price or a minimum sell price.
Long: A position that gains value if the price rises.Read the guide: Long and short: what going long and going short means in crypto
Maker: An order that adds liquidity to the book.Read the guide: Maker and taker fees: what they are and what you really pay
Market depth: The liquidity available at different price levels.
Market order: An order filled against the best available offers.
OCO order: Two linked orders: when one is filled, the other is cancelled.
Order book: The list of buy and sell limit orders.
Partial close: Closing only part of a position.
Perpetuals: Derivative contracts similar to futures with no fixed expiry.Read the guide: Spot or futures: how they differ
Position: Open exposure to an asset.
Post Only: An order that avoids immediate execution as a taker.
Reduce Only: An order that can only reduce an existing position.
Scaling in: Building a position through several orders.
Scaling out: Closing a position through several orders.
Short: A position that gains value if the price falls.Read the guide: Long and short: what going long and going short means in crypto
Slippage: The difference between the expected price and the executed price.
Spot: The market where the asset itself is bought and sold directly.Read the guide: Spot or futures: how they differ
Spread: The difference between the best bid and the best ask.
Stop Limit: An order that triggers a limit order when a price is reached.Read the guide: Stop loss and take profit: what they are and how to set them sensibly
Stop Loss: An order designed to limit losses; the final price may vary.Read the guide: Stop loss and take profit: what they are and how to set them sensibly
Stop Market: An order that triggers a market order when a price is reached.Read the guide: Stop loss and take profit: what they are and how to set them sensibly
Take Profit: An order to lock in profits when a target is reached.Read the guide: Stop loss and take profit: what they are and how to set them sensibly
Taker: An order that takes existing liquidity.Read the guide: Maker and taker fees: what they are and what you really pay
Time in Force: The rule that sets how long an order stays active.
Trader: A person who trades in financial markets.
Trading: Buying and selling assets in search of a return.
Trailing Stop: A stop that follows the price as it moves in your favour.
TWAP: An execution strategy spread out over time.

Leverage and derivatives 44

ADL: Automatic reduction of positions to manage extreme risk.
Backwardation: Longer-dated futures trading below nearer-dated ones.
Bankruptcy price: The level at which the assigned margin runs out under the contract rules.
Basis: The difference between the futures price and the spot price.
Call: An option that grants the right to buy the underlying.
Contango: Longer-dated futures trading above nearer-dated ones.
Cross margin: Margin shared between eligible positions.Read the guide: What leverage in crypto is and how it really works
Delta: Sensitivity of an option’s price to the price of the underlying.
Effective leverage: Total exposure divided by the capital backing it.Read the guide: What leverage in crypto is and how it really works
Expiry: The date on which a contract expires.
Funding Rate: A periodic payment between longs and shorts in perpetual contracts.Read the guide: Funding rate: what it is in perpetual futures
Gamma: Sensitivity of delta to changes in the underlying.
Implied volatility: The expected volatility implied by option prices.
Index Price: A reference price built from several markets.
Initial margin: The collateral required to open a position.
Insurance fund: A fund meant to cover shortfalls arising from liquidations.
Inverse contract: A derivative whose margin and settlement may be denominated in crypto.
Isolated margin: Margin assigned separately to a single position.Read the guide: What leverage in crypto is and how it really works
Last Price: The price of the last executed trade.
Leverage: Lets you control more exposure with less margin; it increases risk.Read the guide: What leverage in crypto is and how it really works
Linear contract: A derivative usually denominated and settled in a stablecoin or fiat.
Liquidation: Forced closure due to insufficient margin; it does not mean a zero total balance.Read the guide: How the liquidation price in futures is calculated
Liquidation cascade: Liquidations that speed up a move and trigger further liquidations.
Liquidation price: The approximate price at which a liquidation would be triggered.Read the guide: How the liquidation price in futures is calculated
Long Squeeze: A fall made worse by the forced closing of longs.
Maintenance margin: The minimum collateral needed to keep a position open.Read the guide: How the liquidation price in futures is calculated
Margin: The collateral used to keep a leveraged position open.Read the guide: What leverage in crypto is and how it really works
Margin Call: A warning that collateral is running short.
Mark Price: The reference price for margin and liquidations on many exchanges.
Negative funding: Usually, shorts pay longs.Read the guide: Funding rate: what it is in perpetual futures
Open Interest: The number or value of open derivative contracts.
Option premium: The amount paid to buy an option.
Options: Contracts that grant the right to buy or sell under agreed conditions.
PnL: Profit and loss.
Positive funding: Usually, longs pay shorts.Read the guide: Funding rate: what it is in perpetual futures
Put: An option that grants the right to sell the underlying.
Realised PnL: The result already locked in on closed trades.
ROE: Percentage return on the capital counted as margin.
ROI: Return relative to the capital invested.
Short Squeeze: A rise made worse by the forced closing of shorts.
Strike: The exercise price of an option.
Theta: Sensitivity of an option’s value to the passage of time.
Unrealised PnL: The floating result of open positions.
Vega: Sensitivity of an option’s value to implied volatility.

Technical analysis 60

Accumulation: A reading of a phase in which buy positions are being built.
Ascending channel: Price oscillating between parallel rising lines.
Bearish divergence: Price makes a higher high while the indicator makes a lower high.See my indicator
BOS: Break of structure, usually in the direction of the trend.
Breakout: A break of a relevant level or range.
Bullish divergence: Price makes a lower low while the indicator makes a higher low.See my indicator
CHoCH: Change of character in the structure that may signal a reversal.
Confirmed breakout: A breakout that meets additional criteria set by the trader.
Confluence: Several technical signals lining up.
Consolidation: A phase of contained movement after a strong move.
Demand zone: An area where buying interest may be expected.
Descending channel: Price oscillating between parallel falling lines.
Discount zone: The lower part of a reference range.
Distribution: A reading of a phase of selling by large participants.
Divergence: A disagreement between the price’s path and an indicator.See my indicator
Dynamic resistance: A moving reference that can act as resistance.
Dynamic support: A moving reference that can act as support, such as a moving average.
Equal Highs: Highs at roughly the same level.
Equal Lows: Lows at roughly the same level.
Fair Value Gap (FVG): An imbalance between candles where price left a thinly traded zone.
Fakeout: A breakout that fails and returns to the previous range.
Fibonacci: A tool that marks mathematical ratios used as technical references.
Fibonacci extension: A projection of levels beyond a previous move.
Fibonacci retracement: Percentage levels applied to a previous move.
Gap: A gap between the prices of consecutive periods.
HH: A high that is higher than the previous one.
HL: A low that is higher than the previous one.
Imbalance: A temporary imbalance between buying and selling pressure.
LH: A high that is lower than the previous one.
Liquidity Sweep: A move that runs through an extreme and comes back, read as a sweep of liquidity.
LL: A low that is lower than the previous one.
Mitigation: Price returning to a technical zone to absorb orders, according to certain approaches.
Momentum: The strength or speed of a price move.
MSS: A significant market structure shift according to certain analysis methods.
Multi-timeframe: Analysis that combines several timeframes.
Naked POC: A volume point of control that has not been revisited since.
Opening gap: The difference between the previous close and the next open.
Order Block: A zone of candles that certain methods link to institutional orders.
Overbought: An indicator reading linked to a sharp rise; it does not predict an immediate reversal.
Oversold: An indicator reading linked to a sharp fall; it does not predict an immediate bounce.
Pivot point: A level calculated from earlier prices to identify potential zones.
POC: The price level with the most volume in the profile studied.
Premium zone: The upper part of a reference range.
Pullback: A temporary move back against the recent movement.
Range: An interval bounded by recurring highs and lows.
Resistance: A zone where supply may appear; it does not guarantee a drop.
Retest: A return to a level after breaking it.
Stop Hunt: A move read as a search for clustered stop orders.
Supply zone: An area where selling interest may be expected.
Support: A zone where demand may appear; it does not guarantee a bounce.
Swing High: A local high compared with the nearby candles.
Swing Low: A local low compared with the nearby candles.
Technical analysis: The study of charts, prices and volumes to outline scenarios.
Throwback: A return towards a resistance that has been broken.
Timeframe: The time interval each candle represents.
Trend reversal: A shift from one pattern of highs and lows to another.
Trendline: A line connecting relevant extremes on the chart.
VAH: The upper boundary of the value area of the volume profile.
VAL: The lower boundary of the value area of the volume profile.
Volume profile: The distribution of traded volume by price level.

Candles and patterns 31

Ascending triangle: A consolidation with a fairly flat top and rising lows.
Bearish candle: A candle whose close is below its open.
Bearish engulfing: A bearish body that engulfs the previous bullish body.
Bullish candle: A candle whose close is above its open.
Bullish engulfing: A bullish body that engulfs the previous bearish body.
Candle body: The distance between the open and the close.
Cup and handle: A rounded pattern followed by a small consolidation.
Descending triangle: A consolidation with a fairly flat bottom and falling highs.
Doji: A candle with its open and close very close together.
Double bottom: Two similar lows that may signal a bullish reversal.
Double top: Two similar highs that may signal a bearish reversal.
Falling wedge: A pattern of converging falling lines.
Flag: A brief consolidation after a strong move.
Hammer: A candle with a small body and a long lower wick.
Head and shoulders: A pattern of three highs with the middle one highest.
Inside Bar: A candle whose range stays within the previous candle’s range.
Inverse head and shoulders: A pattern of three lows with the middle one lowest.
Inverted hammer: A candle with a small body and a long upper wick.
Japanese candlestick: A representation of the open, high, low and close.
Marubozu: A candle with a large body and tiny or no wicks.
Outside Bar: A candle whose range exceeds the previous high and low.
Pennant: A small triangular consolidation after an impulse.
Pin Bar: A candle with a long wick that reflects rejection of a level.
Rising wedge: A pattern of converging rising lines.
Rounding bottom: A gradual shift from falls to rises.
Rounding top: A gradual shift from rises to falls.
Shooting star: A candle pattern with a long upper wick after a rise.
Symmetrical triangle: A consolidation with falling highs and rising lows.
Triple bottom: Three nearby lows in a support zone.
Triple top: Three nearby highs in a resistance zone.
Wick: The part that shows highs or lows outside the body.

Indicators 30

ADX: An indicator of trend strength, not direction.
ATR: A measure of the average true range; it estimates volatility.
Beta: Sensitivity of an asset to a benchmark index or market.
Bollinger Bands: Bands around a moving average based on standard deviation.
BTC dominance: The share of total crypto market capitalisation that belongs to Bitcoin.
CCI: An oscillator that measures deviations from a statistical average.
Correlation: A measure of how the movements of two variables relate.
CVD: The cumulative difference between aggressive buy volume and aggressive sell volume.
Death Cross: A bearish cross of a short moving average below a long one.
Exponential moving average (EMA): An average that gives more weight to recent prices.
Fear and Greed Index: A composite indicator of fear and greed sentiment.
Golden Cross: A bullish cross of a short moving average above a long one.
Ichimoku: A system of lines for assessing trend, momentum and technical zones.
Ichimoku cloud: The zone between two projected lines of the Ichimoku system.
Liquidation heatmap: An estimated map of levels with potential clusters of liquidations.
Liquidity heatmap: A visualisation of where orders or liquidity cluster by price.
MACD: An indicator based on the difference between exponential moving averages.See my indicator
MACD histogram: The difference between the MACD and its signal line.
MFI: An oscillator that combines price and volume.
OBV: A cumulative indicator that adds or subtracts volume depending on the close.
Parabolic SAR: A trend-following indicator with dynamic dots.
Pivot Points: Levels derived from previous highs, lows and closes.
ROC: The percentage rate of change of the price.
RSI: An oscillator that compares the size of recent gains and losses.See my indicator
Simple moving average (SMA): The average of prices over the last periods, each with equal weight.
Standard deviation: A statistical measure of dispersion around the mean.
Stochastic: An oscillator that compares the close with the recent range.
Supertrend: A trend indicator usually based on ATR.
Volume delta: The difference between volume executed at the ask and at the bid.
VWAP: Volume-weighted average price.

Risk management 41

Backtesting: Evaluating a strategy on historical data.
Balance: The account balance, not necessarily including unrealised PnL.
Concentration: Reliance on a few positions or assets.
Confirmation bias: Seeking data that supports an idea and ignoring data against it.
Discipline: Consistently following the trading plan.
Diversification: Spreading capital across different exposures.
Drawdown: A fall from a capital peak to a later low.
Edge: The potential statistical advantage of a strategy.
Equity: The current value of the account, including floating results.
Expectancy: The average profit expected per trade given the probabilities and outcomes.
Forward Testing: Evaluating a strategy on later or real-time data.
Hindsight bias: Believing an outcome was obvious after knowing it.
Invalidation: A condition showing that the trade idea no longer holds.
Loss aversion: The tendency to feel losses more intensely than gains of similar size.
Loss Rate: The percentage of losing trades.
Maximum daily loss: The loss limit allowed during a session.
Maximum Drawdown: The largest peak-to-trough fall recorded.
Maximum weekly loss: The loss limit allowed during a week.
Overfitting: Excessive optimisation on past data that fails on new data.
Overtrading: Opening too many trades without enough justification.
Paper Trading: Simulated trading without risking real money.
Portfolio correlation: The degree to which positions move together.
Position size: The quantity of the asset or the notional value traded.Read the guide: How much to risk per trade: the 1% rule and how to calculate position size
Position sizing: Working out the right size for a position.Read the guide: How much to risk per trade: the 1% rule and how to calculate position size
Profit Factor: Gross profits divided by gross losses.
R-multiple: A result expressed as a multiple of the initial risk.
Recovery Factor: Net profit divided by maximum drawdown, depending on the method used.
Revenge Trading: Trading impulsively to win back losses.
Risk management: Rules to control how much capital can be lost.Read the guide: How much to risk per trade: the 1% rule and how to calculate position size
Risk of ruin: The probability of losing a critical part of the capital.
Risk per trade: The amount or percentage exposed to loss on a trade.Read the guide: How much to risk per trade: the 1% rule and how to calculate position size
Risk-reward ratio (R:R): Potential profit divided by potential loss.Read the guide: Stop loss and take profit: what they are and how to set them sensibly
Setup: The set of conditions required for an entry.
Sharpe Ratio: Excess return adjusted for volatility.
Sortino Ratio: Excess return adjusted for downside volatility.
Strategy: A repeatable method for making trading decisions.
Survivorship bias: Analysing only the cases that survived and ignoring the failures.
Technical stop: A stop placed where the scenario would be invalidated.
Trading journal: A record of trades, the reasons behind them and their results.
Trading plan: A set of rules for entries, exits and risk management.
Win Rate: The percentage of winning trades.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain 77

51% attack: Majority control of consensus power that makes certain attacks possible.
Airdrop: A distribution of tokens to users, at no cost or subject to conditions.
Altcoin: Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
AMM: A trading system that uses reserves and pricing formulas.
APR: A simple annual rate that does not necessarily include compounding.
APY: Annual percentage yield, which accounts for compounding under certain assumptions.
Bitcoin (BTC): A decentralised cryptocurrency with a programmed maximum supply of 21 million.
Block: A set of transactions added to a chain.
Block explorer: A tool for looking up public transactions and blocks.
Blockchain: A distributed ledger of transactions grouped into blocks.
Bridge: A protocol for moving assets or their representations between networks.
Burn: Removing tokens from circulation through a burn mechanism.
CeFi: Financial services provided by centralised entities.
CEX: A centralised exchange run by a company.Read the guide: Bitunix, Bitget and BingX: a crypto exchange comparison for 2026
Circulating supply: The number of tokens estimated to be available on the market.
Coin: The native asset of a blockchain network.
Cold Wallet: Offline storage of keys.
Confirmations: The blocks added since a transaction was included.
Contract address: The identifier of a deployed smart contract.
Custody: Responsibility for holding and controlling assets or keys.
DAO: An organisation that coordinates decisions through on-chain mechanisms.
DeFi: Financial services built on decentralised protocols.
Depeg: A stablecoin losing its intended peg.
DEX: A decentralised exchange that works through protocols and smart contracts.
FDV: Fully diluted valuation: price multiplied by the maximum or total planned supply.
Gas: The unit of computational work on certain blockchains.
Gas Fee: The fee for executing a transaction on a network.
Governance Token: A token tied to rights to take part in decisions.
Halving: The scheduled cut in the Bitcoin block reward.
Hardware Wallet: A physical device designed to protect private keys.
Hash: The output of a cryptographic hash function.
Hashrate: The computing power devoted to proof-of-work mining.
Honeypot: A token or contract that lets you buy in but makes it hard or impossible to sell.
Hot Wallet: A wallet whose keys are accessible on a connected device.
Impermanent Loss: The difference in value between providing liquidity and simply holding the assets separately.
Layer 1: A base blockchain that processes and secures transactions.
Layer 2: A system built on top of a base blockchain to improve scalability.
Liquidity pool: Funds deposited to enable swaps on a protocol.
Liquidity Provider: A user who adds assets to a liquidity pool.
Mainnet: The main blockchain network in production.
Max supply: The maximum amount set by the protocol, if there is one.
Memecoin: A token whose appeal depends largely on memes and community.
Mempool: The set of transactions waiting to be confirmed.
Mining: The proof-of-work process that secures certain networks.
Mint: Creating or issuing new units of a token.
NFT: A non-fungible token that represents a distinct digital unit.
Node: A computer that takes part in a blockchain network.
Oracle: A service that feeds external data to smart contracts.
Private key: A cryptographic secret that authorises transactions.
Proof of Stake: Consensus based on an economic stake in tokens.
Proof of Work: Consensus based on computational work.
Public key: Data derived from the private key and used in cryptography.
Pump and Dump: Manipulation that artificially inflates a price in order to sell to the buyers it attracts.
Restaking: Reusing already staked assets to secure other services.
Rug Pull: A fraud or abandonment in which the promoters drain value from the project.
Seed Phrase: Recovery words that allow a wallet to be restored.
Self-Custody: Direct control of the keys by the user.
Slashing: A penalty on staked funds for certain protocol violations.
Smart Contract: A program deployed on a blockchain that executes defined rules.
Stablecoin: A token designed to hold a reference value, with no absolute guarantee.
Staking: Locking or delegating tokens to take part in network mechanisms or earn rewards.
Sybil Attack: Using multiple identities to gain an advantage in a network or system.
Testnet: A test network that usually does not use assets with real value.
Token: A digital asset issued on a blockchain infrastructure.
Token Unlock: The release of previously locked tokens.
Tokenomics: The design of a token’s issuance, distribution and incentives.
TVL: The total value of assets deposited in protocols, depending on the methodology.
TxID: The identifier of a transaction on a blockchain.
USDC: A stablecoin issued by Circle and pegged to the U.S. dollar.
USDT: A stablecoin issued by Tether and pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Validator: A participant that helps verify blocks according to the protocol.
Vesting: A schedule for the gradual unlocking of tokens.
Wallet: A tool for managing the keys and transactions of crypto-assets.
Wash Trading: Artificial trades made to fake volume or activity.
Whitelist: A list of addresses or users allowed to take part.
Wrapped Token: A token that represents another asset on a network.
Yield Farming: Seeking returns by putting capital into DeFi protocols.

Macroeconomics 32

Bond yield: The return the market demands from a bond.
Contractionary monetary policy: Measures aimed at curbing inflation and demand.
CPI: An index that measures changes in consumer prices.
DXY: An index of the dollar against a basket of currencies.
ECB: The European Central Bank.
ETF: An exchange-traded fund.
ETF flows: Net inflows and outflows of capital in exchange-traded funds.
Expansionary monetary policy: Measures aimed at stimulating lending and activity.
Federal Reserve (Fed): The central bank of the United States.
FOMC: The Fed committee that decides monetary policy.
Fundamental analysis: The study of economic, financial and project data to estimate value and prospects.
GDP: The value of the final goods and services produced in an economy.
Inflation: A general rise in the price level.
Interest rates: The price of money, set or influenced by monetary authorities.
Macro correlation: The relationship between assets and economic variables.
NFP: The monthly U.S. non-farm payrolls report.
PCE: The personal consumption expenditures price index used in the United States.
PMI: A survey-based index of business activity.
Powell: Jerome Powell, chair of the Fed from 2018 to May 2026, when Kevin Warsh replaced him.
QE: Central bank asset purchases to ease financial conditions.
QT: Shrinking the assets on the central bank’s balance sheet.
Recession: A significant contraction in economic activity.
Risk-off: An environment in which investors seek assets considered safer.
Risk-on: An environment of greater appetite for risk assets.
Safe-haven asset: An asset seen as relatively defensive in times of stress.
Spot ETF: An exchange-traded fund with exposure to the spot asset, depending on its structure.
Stagflation: A mix of high inflation and weak growth.
Systemic risk: The risk that a problem spreads to the whole financial system.
Treasury bond: A debt security issued by a government.
Unemployment rate: The percentage of the labour force without a job and looking for work.
Yield curve: A chart of debt yields by maturity.
Yield curve inversion: A situation in which short-term yields exceed long-term ones.