Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin, including Ether and smaller coins. Altcoins often move further in a day than Bitcoin does.
Ask Price
The price you pay when you open a buy trade. It’s always slightly higher than the bid price, and the gap between the two is the spread.
Asset Class
A group of markets that tend to react to the same kind of news, such as stocks, forex, crypto, indices, commodities or metals.
Balance
The money in your account, leaving out the profit or loss on positions that are still open. Your equity shows the figure with those positions included.
Base Currency
The first currency in a forex pair. In EUR/USD, the euro is the base currency, and the price shows how many US dollars one euro buys.
Basis Point
One hundredth of a percentage point. When a central bank raises rates by 25 basis points, the rate goes up by 0.25%.
Bear Market
A long stretch of falling prices, usually counted as a drop of 20% or more from a recent high.
Bid Price
The price you get when you sell or close a buy trade. It sits slightly below the ask price.
Bond
A loan to a government or company that pays interest over a set term. Bond yields often shift with interest-rate expectations, which can move currencies too.
Bull Market
A long stretch of rising prices, often alongside strong company earnings and steady economic growth.
Candlestick Chart
A chart where each bar shows the open, high, low and close price for a set period, such as one hour or one day. The color tells you if the price finished higher or lower.
Central Bank
The institution that sets interest rates for a country or region, such as the Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank. Its decisions can move currencies, stocks and gold.
CFD (Contract for Difference)
An agreement to trade the price movement of an asset without owning it. You can open a position on prices rising or falling, and your result is the difference between the opening and closing price.
Commodity
A raw material traded on global markets, such as crude oil, natural gas, wheat or coffee. Prices tend to react to supply, weather and demand.
CPI (Consumer Price Index)
A monthly measure of what everyday goods and services cost. It’s the most watched inflation figure and often moves currencies and indices on release day.
Cryptocurrency
A digital currency that runs on a blockchain, such as Bitcoin or Ether. Crypto markets trade around the clock, including weekends.
Currency Pair
Two currencies quoted against each other, such as EUR/USD. The price shows how much of the second currency one unit of the first is worth.
Day Trading
Opening and closing positions within the same day, so nothing is held overnight.
Dividend
A payment a company makes to its shareholders from its profits, usually every quarter.
Dovish
Describes a central bank leaning toward lower interest rates to support growth. A dovish tone often weighs on that country’s currency.
Downtrend
A run of lower highs and lower lows on a chart, showing a market that’s been falling over time.
Drawdown
How far your account falls from its highest point before it recovers. A 10% drawdown means your equity dropped 10% from its peak.
Earnings Season
The weeks each quarter when most listed companies report their results. Share prices and indices often move more than usual during this time.
Economic Calendar
A schedule of upcoming data releases and central-bank meetings, with each event marked by its expected impact on the markets.
Equity
Your account balance plus or minus the profit or loss on your open positions. It changes as prices move.
Exchange Rate
The price of one currency in terms of another, shown as a currency pair like GBP/USD.
Federal Reserve (Fed)
The US central bank. Its interest-rate decisions affect the dollar and often move stocks, gold and other currencies too.
Fill
The moment your order is carried out, and the price it’s carried out at.
Forex
Short for foreign exchange, the market where currencies are traded in pairs. It’s open 24 hours a day on weekdays and is the largest financial market in the world.
Free Margin
The equity left in your account once the margin for your open positions is set aside. It’s the amount available for new positions.
Fundamental Analysis
Studying the economic data, company results and news behind a market to judge where its price could go next.
Gap
A jump between one closing price and the next opening price, with no trading in between. Gaps often appear after weekends or major news.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product)
The total value of everything a country produces over a set period. Quarterly GDP figures show if an economy is growing or shrinking.
Gold
The most traded precious metal, often in demand when markets turn uncertain. It’s quoted against the US dollar.
Hawkish
Describes a central bank leaning toward higher interest rates to bring inflation down. A hawkish tone often lifts that country’s currency.
Heatmap
A color-coded grid that compares how different assets are performing. A currency heatmap shows which currencies are strong or weak across several pairs at once.
Hedging
Opening a position that offsets the risk on another, so a loss on one is partly covered by a gain on the other.
High-Impact Event
A scheduled release or announcement expected to move markets sharply, such as a rate decision or jobs report. These are flagged on the economic calendar.
Index
A single figure that tracks a group of stocks, such as the S&P 500 or the DAX 40. Trading an index lets you take a view on a whole market at once.
Inflation
The rate at which prices rise across an economy. Higher inflation often leads central banks to raise interest rates.
Instrument
Any individual asset you can trade, such as Apple shares, EUR/USD or Brent crude.
Interest Rate
The cost of borrowing money, set by a central bank for its economy. Rate changes are one of the biggest drivers of currency prices.
KYC (Know Your Customer)
The identity checks a regulated trading platform carries out when you open an account. You’ll usually need a photo ID and a recent proof of address.
Leverage
Lets you open a larger position than your deposit alone would allow. With leverage of 1:10, $1,000 controls a $10,000 position, which increases both potential gains and potential losses.
Limit Order
An order to buy or sell at a set price or better. It’s only filled if the market reaches your price.
Liquidity
How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price. Major currency pairs and large company stocks usually have high liquidity.
Long Position
A trade that gains if the price rises. Going long means buying.
Lot
A standard unit of trade size. In forex, one standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, with mini and micro lots for smaller positions.
Major and Minor Pairs
Majors are the most traded currency pairs, each including the US dollar, such as EUR/USD and USD/JPY. Minors pair two other major currencies, such as EUR/GBP.
Margin
The money set aside from your account to keep a leveraged position open. It’s held while the trade is running and released when you close it.
Margin Call
An alert that your equity is getting close to the margin you’re using. You can add funds or close positions to bring your margin level back up.
Margin Level
Your equity divided by your used margin, shown as a percentage. The higher it is, the more room your open positions have.
Market Order
An order to buy or sell straight away at the best price available.
Moving Average
The average price over a set number of periods, drawn as a line on the chart to smooth out short-term moves and show the trend.
Negative Balance Protection
A safeguard that keeps your balance from going below zero. If losses are larger than the money in your account, the negative amount is reset to zero.
Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP)
The monthly US jobs report, usually released on the first Friday of the month. It’s one of the busiest releases for the dollar, gold and US indices.
OPEC
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group of oil producers whose supply decisions can move crude prices.
Open Position
A trade you’ve opened and haven’t closed yet. Its profit or loss changes with every price move.
Overbought and Oversold
Terms for a market that has risen or fallen quickly and may be due a pause. Indicators like the RSI are often used to spot them.
Pip
The smallest standard price move in a currency pair, usually the fourth decimal place. If EUR/USD moves from 1.0850 to 1.0851, it has moved one pip.
Pip Value
What one pip is worth in your account currency, which depends on the pair and your position size.
Position Size
How large a trade is, measured in lots, shares or units.
Precious Metals
Gold, silver and platinum, the most widely traded metals. They’re usually quoted in US dollars and often draw buyers when markets turn uncertain.
Price Alert
A notification sent to your desktop or phone when a market reaches a price you’ve chosen.
Profit and Loss (P&L)
The running total of what your trades have made or lost, shown for both open and closed positions.
Quantitative Easing (QE)
When a central bank buys bonds to bring down long-term interest rates and add money to the economy. QE tends to weaken the currency involved.
Quote Currency
The second currency in a forex pair. In EUR/USD, the US dollar is the quote currency, so the price shows how many dollars one euro costs.
Rate Decision
A central bank’s scheduled announcement on interest rates. It’s usually one of the highest-impact events on the economic calendar.
Resistance
A price level a market has struggled to rise above in the past, as selling tends to pick up there.
Risk Appetite
How willing investors are to buy riskier assets like stocks and crypto. High risk appetite is often called risk-on, and when it falls, money tends to move into safe havens.
Risk Management
The steps you take to limit how much you can lose, such as setting stop losses and keeping position sizes in line with your account.
Risk-Reward Ratio
Compares how much a trade could lose with how much it could gain. A 1:2 ratio means risking $100 to aim for $200.
RSI (Relative Strength Index)
An indicator that measures the speed of recent price moves on a scale of 0 to 100. Readings above 70 are often seen as overbought and below 30 as oversold.
Safe Haven
An asset investors tend to buy when markets turn uncertain, such as gold, the US dollar, the Japanese yen or the Swiss franc.
Short Position
A trade that gains if the price falls. Going short means selling first and buying back later.
Slippage
The difference between the price you expected and the price your order was filled at. It’s more common when markets move fast.
Spread
The difference between the bid and ask price of an instrument, and the main cost of opening a trade. Spreads are variable and can widen around major news.
Stop-Limit Order
A stop price triggers a limit order, so you control both when the order activates and the price it can fill at.
Stop Loss
An order that closes your position automatically at a price you choose, to limit how much the trade can lose.
Stop Order
An order to buy or sell once the price moves through a level you choose. It’s used to enter a market as it breaks out or to limit a loss.
Stop-Out
The point where open positions are closed automatically because your margin level has fallen too low. The largest losing position is usually closed first.
Support
A price level where a market has tended to stop falling in the past, as buyers step in.
Swap
A fee or credit applied when you hold a leveraged position overnight, based on the cost of funding the position.
Take Profit
An order that closes your position automatically once it reaches your target price, so the gain is locked in.
Technical Analysis
Reading price charts, patterns and indicators to judge where a market might move next.
Ticker
The short code that identifies a stock or asset, such as AAPL for Apple or TSLA for Tesla.
Trading Hours
The times a market is open for trading. Forex trades 24 hours on weekdays, stocks follow their exchange’s sessions and crypto trades through the weekend.
Trading Session
The main trading hours of each financial center, such as Tokyo, London and New York. Prices often move most when the London and New York sessions overlap.
Trend
The general direction a market has been moving over time, which can be up, down or sideways.
Underlying Asset
The real asset a CFD tracks, such as a share, a currency pair or a barrel of oil.
Uptrend
A run of higher highs and higher lows on a chart, showing a market that’s been rising over time.
Volatility
How much and how quickly a market’s price moves. High volatility means bigger swings in both directions.
Volume
The number of shares, contracts or lots traded over a set period. Rising volume often shows strong interest behind a price move.
Wick
The thin line above or below a candlestick’s body, showing the highest and lowest prices reached in that period.
Withdrawal
Moving money from your trading account back to your bank or card. Withdrawals usually go back to the method you deposited with.
WTI and Brent
The two main benchmarks for crude oil. WTI is US oil and Brent comes from the North Sea, and both are quoted in US dollars per barrel.
XAU/USD
The trading symbol for gold priced in US dollars. XAG/USD is the same for silver.
Yield
The return on a bond, shown as a percentage. Government bond yields often move with interest-rate expectations and can affect currencies and stocks.
