Financial terms, explained from first principles.

Same-day-expiration options. Daily SPX 0DTE volume exceeds longer-dated since 2022. Has restructured intraday market behavior via dealer gamma.

Rare three-candle reversal pattern: doji isolated by gaps on both sides. Highest-reliability star pattern variant.

Elliott corrective 3-wave structure: A (impulse against trend), B (retrace against A), C (impulse against trend, often Fibonacci-related to A). The standard corrective form.

Trend-strength indicator (0-100). >25 = strong trend; <20 = ranging/weak. Doesn't show direction, only strength. Combine with +DI/-DI for directional context.

Excess return over a benchmark, after adjusting for risk.

VWAP calculated from a specific event (earnings, IPO, swing low) rather than session start. Identifies institutional cost basis from a notable moment.

Tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the anchor) when making subsequent decisions. Common in price targets and entry levels.

Average True Range - a measure of recent price volatility.

Exchange-forced closure of profitable opposite-side positions to absorb cascade losses when insurance fund is depleted. The worst-case scenario for profitable traders.

In EUR/USD, EUR is the base (what you're buying) and USD is the quote (what you're paying with). The quote price says how many quote-currency units = 1 base.

Long spot + short futures (or perp) to capture the futures premium — earns the basis/funding with no directional exposure. The flagship neutral crypto strategy.

5-point harmonic with stricter ratios than Gartley. AB = 0.382-0.50 of XA; CD reaches 0.886 of XA. Tighter reversal at D.

Sensitivity of a security's returns to overall market movement.

Canada's central bank. Sets overnight target rate at 8 meetings per year. Commodity-cycle sensitive (oil exporter); traditionally moves alongside Fed.

UK central bank. Sets Bank Rate at Monetary Policy Committee meetings. Single inflation-target mandate (2% CPI).

Japan's central bank. Spent 2016-2024 pinning long-end yields via YCC. Ended NIRP in March 2024, hiking for first time in decades.

Volatility envelope: 20-period moving average ± 2 standard deviations. Bands expand in volatile markets, contract in quiet ones. Classic mean-reversion framework.

Price closing beyond a prior swing high (uptrend continuation) or swing low (downtrend continuation). Confirms the existing trend.

An order block that has been broken (price closed through it in the opposite direction). On retest from the other side, can act as a 'breaker' level.

Reverse triangle: diverging trendlines making higher highs and lower lows. Signals volatility expansion and trend exhaustion.

5-point harmonic where D point EXTENDS beyond X. AB = 0.786 of XA; CD = 1.27-1.618 of XA. Reversal at D after a deeper extension.

Three-strike options structure: long-low + short-2x-middle + long-high (calls or puts). Profits if price pins at middle strike. Limited risk, limited reward.

Stops located ABOVE current price = buy-side liquidity (triggers buying when hit). Stops BELOW = sell-side liquidity (triggers selling). SMC terminology for stop pools.

A company repurchasing its own shares from the open market.

Annual return divided by max drawdown. Simple, drawdown-focused alternative to Sharpe. Higher = better risk-adjusted return.

Income earned from holding a position over time.

Borrowing in a low-yielding currency to invest in a higher-yielding one, pocketing the rate differential.

A pair where you EARN swap when long (long high-rate, short low-rate) is carry-positive. Reversed = carry-negative.

Momentum oscillator measuring price deviation from average. Default 20-period. >100 = strong upward momentum; <-100 = strong downward.

Price closing beyond the prior counter-trend swing — signals trend REVERSAL. The first structural signal of a new direction.

Cross-Greek measuring sensitivity of delta to time decay. As time passes, deltas drift — requiring dealer rebalancing absent any spot or vol moves.

A trading halt triggered by extreme price moves to allow markets to absorb information.

Wyckoff's metaphor for the aggregated institutional flow that 'plays' the market. Treats all institutional behavior as if one trader controlling supply and demand.

Monthly US consumer confidence survey from the Conference Board. Complement to Michigan sentiment with different methodology and weights.

Tendency to seek information that confirms existing positions and dismiss information that contradicts them. The most common cognitive bias in trading.

The curvature of a bond's price-yield relationship.

Core excludes food and energy from CPI to remove volatile components. Core is the persistent-inflation signal; headline drives the news cycle.

Monthly US inflation report (headline and core). Released mid-month at 8:30am ET. After NFP, the most market-moving scheduled release.

5-point harmonic with extreme D extension. CD = 1.618 of XA. Reversal at D after the deepest extension of any harmonic pattern.

Any FX pair not involving USD — derived from two USD legs (EUR/GBP = EUR/USD × USD/GBP).

Cross-margin: all positions share account balance as margin. Isolated: each position has its own dedicated margin, capped at the allocated amount.

Bullish continuation pattern: rounded 'cup' bottom followed by a small downward 'handle' consolidation. O'Neil-style breakout setup.

Weighted-average exposure to multiple currencies. DXY is the most-watched basket (USD vs 6 major counterparts).

Statistical co-movement between FX pairs. Long-USD trades expressed across 5 majors are correlated bets, not 5 independent trades.

Three tiers of FX pairs: majors (USD vs G7), minors / crosses (no USD), exotics (USD vs EM).

Fixed exchange rate maintained by a central bank against a reference currency or basket.

5-point harmonic with unique BC = 1.13-1.414 EXTENSION beyond B (not retracement). CD = 0.786 of XC. Less common, higher reliability when correctly identified.

Two-candle bearish reversal: large green candle, then a red candle opening above the prior high but closing ≥50% into the green body. Bearish but weaker than engulfing.

Discounted Cash Flow - valuation by discounting projected cash flows to present.

The specific gamma POSITION held by options market makers (dealers) — distinct from total open-interest gamma. Most-watched component of GEX analysis.

Decentralized Finance - financial applications running on blockchains.

How much an option's price changes per $1 move in the underlying.

Rare reversal pattern shaped like a diamond — broadening formation followed by a contracting formation. Signals trend exhaustion.

When new share issuance reduces existing shareholders' ownership percentage.

Direct quote: USD is the quote currency (EUR/USD). Reverse quote: USD is the base (USD/JPY). Pip-value math differs between the two.

Officially floating exchange rate, but the central bank intervenes opportunistically to influence the level. Most EM currencies in practice.

A strong, fast directional move that 'displaces' prior price structure. Often creates FVGs and confirms institutional flow direction.

Tendency to sell winners too early (lock in gains) and hold losers too long (avoid realizing losses). Documented by Shefrin and Statman; one of the most robust behavioral findings.

Annual dividend per share divided by current share price.

Candlestick with virtually identical open and close — body looks like a horizontal line. Signals indecision and potential reversal.

Highest high and lowest low over N periods (default 20). Breakout above upper = bullish; below lower = bearish. Foundation of the Turtle Traders system.

Two peaks (top) or two lows (bottom) at roughly the same level, separated by an intervening swing. The 'M' or 'W' chart shape every retail trader learns first.

Peak-to-trough decline in portfolio value.

Monthly orders for goods expected to last 3+ years. Volatile (aircraft orders dominate) but leading indicator for business investment.

Bond price sensitivity to interest rate changes.

The US Dollar Index — trade-weighted USD against EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD, SEK, CHF.

Difference between actual earnings and analyst consensus.

Earnings per share divided by price - the inverse of P/E.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.

Eurozone central bank. Single mandate: price stability (HICP inflation target ~2%). Sets deposit rate, main refi rate, marginal lending rate.

Wyckoff principle comparing volume (effort) to price movement (result). Divergences signal supply/demand imbalances.

Theory by Ralph Elliott (1930s): markets move in 5-wave IMPULSE structures and 3-wave CORRECTIVE structures, recursively across all timeframes. The dominant wave-based framework.

Two regional Fed manufacturing surveys (NY, Philadelphia). Released mid-month, providing early signal for ISM Manufacturing PMI.

Two-candle reversal: a small candle followed by a much larger opposite-color candle that 'engulfs' the prior. Bullish or bearish based on direction.

Two or more swing highs at the same level (EQH) or swing lows at the same level (EQL). Concentrated stop liquidity — primary sweep targets.

Plot of account equity over time. Shape reveals strategy character (smooth uptrend, choppy, exponential, deteriorating).

The excess expected return of equities over the risk-free rate.

Exchange-Traded Fund - a basket of securities trading like a single stock.

The single most traded FX pair (~$1.4T daily). Tightest spreads, deepest book, anchor of every multi-pair FX strategy.

Average profit/loss per trade, in R-multiples. The single number that determines if a strategy is statistically profitable.

Building portfolios based on systematic risk premiums (value, momentum, etc.).

Three-candle pattern with an unfilled price gap between the first candle's wick and the third candle's wick. SMC term for a price inefficiency that often acts as a magnet.

The overnight rate at which U.S. banks lend reserves to each other.

US central bank. Dual mandate: maximum employment + price stability. Sets fed funds rate via FOMC. The single most important policy institution in global markets.

Projection levels beyond 100% of a price swing — used to project target zones for impulse waves. Common levels: 127.2%, 161.8%, 261.8%.

Reference levels derived from Fibonacci ratios (23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, 78.6%) applied to price swings. Acts as support/resistance zones.

Position-closure rule requiring the oldest opened lots to close first. US FX brokers are FIFO-mandated by NFA.

Risk the same % of current equity on every trade. Default position sizing method for most retail strategies.

Brief consolidation patterns after a sharp directional move (the 'flagpole'). Flags are parallel channels; pennants are small triangles. High-conviction continuation signals.

The Federal Open Market Committee - the Fed's rate-setting body.

Fear Of Missing Out - buying because others are profiting.

FX trade with settlement on a specific future date (not spot T+2). Price = spot + forward points reflecting interest-rate differential.

Option contract on an FX pair. Premium quoted in pips, strikes set vs forward, common structures include risk reversals and butterflies.

Cash generated after maintenance capex; the actual money the business throws off.

Periodic payment between perpetual-futures longs and shorts that anchors perp price to spot. Positive = longs pay; negative = shorts pay. Cleanest leverage-sentiment gauge in crypto.

Direct central bank or treasury action in the foreign exchange market to influence the currency's level.

Margin-based exposure multiplier in FX, ranging 30:1 (US retail) to 500:1+ (offshore brokers).

The bid-ask spread on an FX pair, expressed in pips — the broker's primary revenue and your primary friction cost.

The interest charged or paid on rolled FX positions overnight — the price of holding a pair past the broker's daily close.

Visualisation of historical realised volatility ranges across time horizons — the chart that tells you if current FX vol is cheap or expensive.

The rate of change of delta - the option's curvature.

Aggregated gamma position of options dealers across all strikes. Positive GEX = dealers buy dips and sell rips (vol-suppressing); negative GEX = vol-amplifying.

Empty zones in the chart where price jumped past intermediate levels. Three types: breakaway (start of trend), runaway (mid-trend), exhaustion (end of trend).

5-point harmonic pattern (XABCD) with specific Fibonacci ratios. AB retraces 0.618 of XA; BC retraces 0.382-0.886 of AB; CD = 1.272-1.618 of BC. Reversal at D.

Gross Domestic Product — total US economic output. Released quarterly in three estimates: Advance (1 month after quarter), Preliminary, Final.

Order time-in-force: expires at session close. Default for intraday-only orders.

Order time-in-force: stays active until filled or manually cancelled. Default for swing-trade limit orders.

Company-issued forecasts of future financial performance.

Bitcoin's pre-programmed 50% reduction in mining rewards every ~4 years.

Single candle with small body and long lower wick (2x+ the body). Hammer at bottoms = bullish reversal; hanging man at tops = bearish reversal.

Two-candle pattern: a large candle followed by a small candle whose entire range fits inside the prior body. Inside bar at the candle-body level.

Reversal pattern: three peaks with a higher middle (head) between two lower peaks (shoulders). Confirmed on close below the neckline.

Limit order that doesn't display in the public book at all. Sits invisibly waiting for an aggressive market order to find it.

'I knew it all along' — the tendency to remember past predictions as more accurate than they were. Distorts strategy review and confidence calibration.

Monthly US new-residential-construction report. Leading indicator for housing market and rate-sensitive economic activity.

Large order split into smaller visible chunks. Shows a small piece in the book; replenishes when the visible piece fills.

Japanese cloud-based technical system with 5 components: Tenkan, Kijun, Senkou A, Senkou B, Chikou. The 'one-look equilibrium chart' — multi-timeframe trend in one view.

Specific time windows where ICT theory expects highest-probability institutional moves. London open, NY open, London close, NY close.

The market's forecast of future volatility, extracted from option prices.

Two wave types in Elliott. Impulse: 5 sub-waves, trends in direction of larger wave. Corrective: 3 sub-waves (ABC), against larger trend.

Minor swing high/low that 'induces' retail traders to enter prematurely, providing liquidity that institutional flow then sweeps before the real move.

The rate at which prices rise across an economy.

Candle whose entire high-low range fits inside the prior candle's range. Consolidation pattern — breakout direction determines continuation or reversal.

Exchange-maintained pool that absorbs losses when liquidations execute below the bankruptcy price. Buffer between cascade losses and socialised losses on profitable traders.

Linear perp: collateral and PnL in USDT (stablecoin). Inverse perp: collateral and PnL in the crypto asset itself (BTC for BTC perp). Different risk profiles.

Bullish reversal candle: long upper wick, small body near the low, little-to-no lower wick. Same shape as shooting star but in a downtrend context.

Initial Public Offering - a company's first public sale of stock.

Four-strike options structure combining short put spread and short call spread. Profits if price stays inside a defined range. Standard vol-selling structure.

Group of price bars 'stranded' by gaps on both sides — one gap entering, one gap exiting in the opposite direction. Rare but high-reliability reversal.

Monthly survey-based US manufacturing health indicator. >50 = expansion, <50 = contraction. Released first business day of each month.

Monthly US services-sector health indicator. Services ~70% of US economy. >50 = expansion. Released 3rd business day of each month.

Monthly US job-openings report. The Fed's favorite labor-tightness gauge. Quits rate especially informative — high quits = strong labor market.

Position-sizing formula maximizing long-run geometric growth. f* = (W × R - L) / R, where W = win rate, L = loss rate, R = win/loss ratio.

Volatility envelope: EMA ± multiplier × ATR. Similar to Bollinger Bands but ATR-based (smoother). Often used inside Bollinger for squeeze detection.

Market-maker right to reject an aggressor order at the quoted price within milliseconds of submission. Asymmetric: accepts when market moves in MM's favor, rejects when it moves against.

Maximum leverage decreases as position size increases. A $1k BTC perp position can use 125x; a $10M position is capped at 10-25x. Protects exchange and limits cascade risk.

An ETF that aims to deliver 2x or 3x daily returns of an underlying index.

Order to buy at a maximum price (or sell at a minimum). Fills only at the limit price or better. Trades price certainty for execution certainty.

Closing an open position via an opposing trade. The standard way out of any leveraged position.

Self-reinforcing chain of forced liquidations: each liquidation moves price further, triggering more liquidations. The structural cause of crypto's flash crashes.

Price briefly wicks beyond a known liquidity pool (swing high/low, round number, prior session extreme) then reverses. Triggers stops, then reverses.

The 13:00-17:00 UTC window when both London and New York FX desks are active. Tightest spreads, deepest book, ~70% of daily FX volume.

Psychological asymmetry: losses are felt ~2x more strongly than equivalent gains. Foundational concept of Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).

Standard FX position unit. Standard = 100,000; mini = 10,000; micro = 1,000; nano = 100 base-currency units.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence - a trend/momentum indicator.

Broker warning that account equity has fallen toward margin requirement. If equity reaches the auto-liquidation threshold, the broker force-closes positions.

Index price = volume-weighted spot price across reference exchanges. Mark price = smoothed index price used for liquidations and PnL — protects against flash-crash liquidations.

Order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price. Fills fastest but exposed to slippage in fast markets.

Candle with little to no wicks on either end — pure body. Strong continuation signal: one side dominated the entire session.

Pre-committed maximum drawdown threshold — past which trading stops to preserve capital and re-assess strategy. The circuit breaker.

The strike price at which the most options expire worthless.

A stock whose price is driven primarily by social media-fueled speculation.

An order block that has been touched at least once. Considered 'partially mitigated' — less reliable for further reactions on subsequent retests.

A sustainable competitive advantage that protects long-term returns on capital.

The empirical fact that winners keep winning over the medium term.

Simulate thousands of possible trade orderings to bound the distribution of outcomes. Reveals tail-risk scenarios a backtest doesn't show.

Three-candle reversal: a strong directional candle, a small-body indecision candle (often doji), then a strong opposite-color candle. Higher reliability than single-candle patterns.

Average price over a defined period; smooths noise to show trend.

The idea that contagious stories drive markets, not just fundamentals.

Cash-settled FX forward used for currencies where physical delivery is restricted (KRW, INR, TWD, BRL, RUB).

Monthly US employment report. The most market-moving scheduled macro release — moves SPX 1-2% and DXY 0.5-1.5% on first hour.

Cumulative volume indicator: adds volume on up-days, subtracts on down-days. Rising OBV = accumulation; falling = distribution.

Pair of orders where filling one automatically cancels the other. Standard wrapper for take-profit + stop-loss on a single position.

Same currency, two markets: CNY trades in mainland China under PBoC tight control; CNH trades offshore (Hong Kong) with broader market pricing. Spread between them is a stress signal.

The total number of outstanding option or futures contracts.

Total outstanding leveraged-derivatives positions across all participants. The dominant flow indicator in crypto. Rising OI + rising price = healthy long buildup; rising OI + falling price = short buildup.

Last opposite-color candle before a strong directional move — interpreted as the price zone where institutional orders were executed.

Candle whose high is above and low is below the prior candle's range. Larger-than-prior session — strong directional signal in the breakout direction.

Taking more trades than the system requires — either to capture FOMO setups, to recover losses, or because trading feels productive. Erodes edge through cost and bad entries.

Price divided by earnings per share. The most-quoted valuation metric.

Mass selling driven by fear, often at the worst possible time.

Order fills for less than the requested size because counterparty volume at your price is limited. Remainder stays open or cancels.

China's central bank. Sets daily CNY fixings (managed-float regime), Loan Prime Rate (LPR), Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR). Less transparent than DM central banks.

Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. Released ~30 days after the corresponding month, typically the last Friday.

A fixed-rate regime with a tolerance range (e.g., Hong Kong dollar 7.75-7.85 vs USD). Central bank intervenes whenever price approaches the band edge.

Futures contract with no expiration date. Price tracked to spot via the funding mechanism. The dominant crypto trading instrument — 80%+ of crypto volume.

Two-candle bullish reversal: large red candle, then a green candle opening below the prior low but closing ≥50% into the red body. Mirror of dark cloud cover.

Price-action term for any candle with a long wick (typically ≥2/3 of total range) on one side and small body near the opposite end. Same family as hammer / shooting star.

Price interest point — the smallest standard unit of price change in an FX pair.

How many dollars a 1-pip move is worth on your position — the core position-sizing input in FX.

One tenth of a pip. The 5th decimal on majors (0.00001 on EUR/USD) or the 3rd on yen pairs (0.001 on USD/JPY).

Daily-calculated support/resistance levels based on prior day's high, low, close. Standard intraday reference levels for futures and FX traders.

Deciding how much capital to allocate to a given trade or position.

The systematic method for determining trade size given leverage, account equity, stop distance and pair volatility.

Monthly US producer-side inflation index. Often leads CPI by 1-2 months. Released day before CPI typically.

Within a defined trading range, prices above 50% = premium (sellers' zone), below 50% = discount (buyers' zone). Used for entry-zone framing.

Parallel trendlines connecting swing highs and swing lows in an uptrend or downtrend. Price oscillates within the channel.

Ratio of put volume to call volume. >1 = bearish bias in options flow; <0.5 = bullish. Contrarian signal at extremes.

Trade outcome expressed as a multiple of initial risk (R). +2R = profit twice the initial risk; -1R = full stop. Universal trade-quality metric.

Australian central bank. Sets cash rate at monthly Board meetings (first Tuesday of each month). Highly commodity-cycle sensitive.

New Zealand central bank. Sets Official Cash Rate at quarterly Monetary Policy Statements + intermeeting reviews. First country to adopt formal inflation targeting (1989).

Realized PnL = profit/loss from CLOSED positions. Unrealized PnL = paper profit/loss on OPEN positions. Only realized PnL is bookable; unrealized can evaporate.

Overweighting recent events when forming expectations. Causes traders to chase recent winners and avoid recent losers — usually wrong.

Horizontal consolidation between parallel support and resistance. Tradeable as range (buy support, sell resistance) until breakout.

When market prices feed back into the underlying fundamentals they're supposed to reflect.

Broker rejection of an order at the requested price followed by a new offered price. Common on market-maker brokers in fast markets.

Monthly US retail-spending report. ~30% of GDP. Released ~2 weeks after the corresponding month at 8:30am ET.

Entering new trades primarily to recover from prior losses rather than because the setup is valid. Specific form of tilt.

Sweden's central bank. Sets policy rate (repo rate) at 5 meetings per year. Often a first-mover on cycle inflections; pioneered negative rates.

Probability that account equity falls below a critical threshold (often 50% drawdown or zero) given system stats and position sizing. The math of survival.

Long call + short put at different strikes — same expiration. Bullish synthetic equivalent to long stock with limited downside. Common FX hedging structure.

Ratio of planned profit target to planned risk. 1:3 = $1 risked for $3 of target. The single most-cited but most-misunderstood trade quality metric.

Return on Invested Capital - operating profit relative to capital employed.

Bond returns earned as time passes and the bond rolls down a positively-sloped yield curve.

Daily interest charge or credit applied to FX positions held past the 5pm ET cutoff — the cost (or income) of carry.

Long, gradual U-shape bottoming pattern. Slower than a V-bottom but more reliable as a major-low signal.

Relative Strength Index - momentum oscillator on a 0-100 scale.

5-point harmonic with extreme BC extension and CD = 0.886-1.13 of XC. Newer harmonic (2011). High reliability per Carney.

Risk-adjusted return - excess return per unit of volatility.

Cyclically Adjusted P/E - price divided by 10-year average earnings, inflation-adjusted.

Bearish reversal candle: long upper wick, small body near the low, little-to-no lower wick. Appears at trend tops.

Rapid price rise forcing short sellers to buy back, accelerating the move.

Strong directional move out of a Wyckoff accumulation range, on expanding volume. Confirms accumulation complete and markup beginning.

Strong directional move out of a Wyckoff distribution range to the downside, on expanding volume. Confirms distribution complete and markdown beginning.

Difference between the intended execution price and the actual fill price. Largest hidden cost beyond the spread.

A false breakout or false structural break designed to trap retail in the wrong direction before the real move develops. Highest-conviction reversal signal.

Swiss central bank. Famous for aggressive FX intervention (2011 EUR/CHF floor, 2015 abandonment). Currently runs negative rates and FX-balance-sheet policy.

Like Sharpe but only penalizes DOWNSIDE volatility. (Return - risk-free) / downside deviation. Better for asymmetric return distributions.

Candle with a small body and roughly equal wicks above and below. Mild indecision — weaker than doji but similar interpretation.

False breakdown below an accumulation range low, immediately reversed. The institutional liquidity grab before markup begins.

A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to the US dollar.

Momentum indicator comparing closing price to high-low range over N periods. Scaled 0-100. Overbought >80, oversold <20.

Order that becomes a market order once a trigger price is hit. Used for stop-loss exits and breakout entries.

Brief price move that triggers a cluster of resting stop orders then immediately reverses. Done deliberately by liquidity providers or by emergent algorithmic herd behavior.

An automatic order to exit a position at a predefined adverse price.

Holding losing positions because of money already lost rather than forward-looking analysis. 'I've held this through a 30% drawdown; I'll wait for it to come back.'

Trend-following indicator combining ATR with mid-point levels. Single line on chart: above = uptrend, below = downtrend. Mechanical trend signal.

Price levels where buying or selling has historically clustered.

Standard FX settlement convention: spot trades settle 2 business days after execution. Drives the Wednesday rollover quirk.

Limit order at a planned profit target. Used as the upper bracket in OCO exits.

Implied volatility across expirations for a single underlying. Contango = longer-dated IV > short-dated; backwardation = inverse, signals imminent vol event.

Time decay - how much an option loses per day, all else equal.

Three consecutive long red candles, each closing near its low, each opening within the prior body. Strong bearish reversal/continuation.

Three consecutive long green candles, each closing near its high, each opening within the prior candle's body. Strong bullish continuation/reversal.

Post-breakout retracement that retests the broken level. Throwback = retest from above (after upside break); pullback = retest from below (after downside break).

Emotionally-impaired trading state where the trader makes decisions based on prior outcomes (anger, frustration, FOMO) rather than the trading plan.

Per-trade tracked metrics that reveal system character over time: R-multiple, win rate, payoff, hold time, setup type, time of day, instrument.

Stop-loss that dynamically follows price in the profit direction, locking in gains while leaving room for normal pullback.

Consolidation pattern with converging trendlines. Ascending (flat top, rising bottom), descending (flat bottom, falling top), or symmetrical (both lines converging).

Risk-free profit from pricing discrepancies across three currency pairs. Closed in milliseconds by HFT — retail can't capture but should understand.

Three peaks (top) or three lows (bottom) at roughly the same level, signaling repeated rejection. Stronger than a double but rarer.

Total Value Locked - the dollar value of assets deposited in a DeFi protocol.

Average price over time, equally weighted (no volume weighting). Used as execution benchmark for algorithmic orders distributed evenly over a window.

Two-candle pattern: two consecutive candles with matching highs (tweezer top) or matching lows (tweezer bottom). Indicates strong rejection at a level.

Drawdown-weighted volatility metric — measures pain by combining depth and duration of drawdowns. Lower is better.

Weekly US jobless-claims report. Initial = new filings; continuing = ongoing claims. The highest-frequency labor-market indicator.

Monthly US consumer sentiment survey. Two releases per month: preliminary (mid-month) and final (end-of-month). Highly watched by Fed for inflation-expectations gauge.

False breakout above a distribution range high, immediately reversed. The institutional supply distribution before markdown begins. Mirror of spring.

Reverse-quoted major (USD base, JPY quote). Pips at 0.01. Pip value varies with rate. Carry-trade poster child.

Buying assets trading below their intrinsic value.

Cross-Greek measuring sensitivity of delta to implied volatility. Critical for dealer hedging: vol changes ALSO change delta, requiring additional hedging beyond what spot moves alone imply.

Spread between implied volatility (option prices) and realized volatility (actual price moves). Historically positive — option sellers earn this premium.

Sensitivity of an option's price to a 1-percentage-point change in implied volatility.

The 30-day implied volatility of S&P 500 options. The 'fear gauge.'

Shape of IV across strikes for a single expiration. 'Smile' = both wings elevated (currencies, indices). 'Skew' = one wing elevated (equity index puts).

3D plot of implied volatility across all strikes AND all expirations. Captures the full options-market vol pricing structure. Where vol arbitrage lives.

Volume distribution across price levels (not time). High-Volume Nodes (HVN) act as magnets; Low-Volume Nodes (LVN) act as breakout zones. POC = Point of Control, highest-volume price.

Volume-weighted average price for the trading session. Institutional benchmark — most institutional execution measured against VWAP.

Weighted Average Cost of Capital - blended cost of debt and equity financing.

Elliott labels waves by degree (Grand Supercycle, Cycle, Primary, Intermediate, Minor, Minute…). Distinguishes time-scale of each wave count.

Converging-trendline consolidation that slopes uniformly up or down. Rising wedge = bearish; falling wedge = bullish (counter-intuitive but reliable).

Tradeoff between fraction of winning trades (win rate) and size of winners vs losers (payoff). High win-rate strategies usually have lower payoff; vice versa.

Multi-phase basing process where 'smart money' accumulates a position before a markup phase. Five phases: PS, SC, AR, ST, SOS.

Multi-phase topping process where 'smart money' distributes a position before a markdown phase. Mirror of accumulation. Phases: PSY, BC, AR, ST, SOW, UTAD.

Visual framework showing the five phases of accumulation or distribution sequentially. The standard template for identifying Wyckoff structures.

Borrowing in low-yielding yen to buy higher-yielding assets globally.

Plot of bond yields across maturities.