Trading Glossary
Term Description
Anonymous Trading Bids and offers that are present on the financial markets without disclosing the identity of the market participants.
Ask Rate Also referred to as an offer. It is the lowest price at which a seller agrees to sell a financial asset.
Base Currency In terms of Forex Market trading, currencies are quoted in terms of a currency pair. The first currency in the pair is the base currency. The base currency is the currency against which exchange rates are generally quoted in a given country. Examples: USD/JPY, the US Dollar is the base currency; EUR/USD, the EURO is the base currency.
Balance of Trade The difference in value between a country’s exports and imports calculated within a certain period of time.
Bear A trader who believes that the price of an asset will fall.
Bear Market The financial market in which asset prices are falling.
Bid The selling price of a particular financial asset.
Blockchain A blockchain is essentially a ledger of transactions. Unlike the ledgers kept by banks, they are public and distributed. They are the underlying technology of all cryptocurrencies and allow users to transact with each other without the need for trusted third parties (like banks, PayPal, Western Union etc).
Bretton Woods Agreement A historic agreement signed in 1944 in the U.S. that stipulates the guidelines for an international monetary system.
Broker An individual or an organization that works as the middleman between retail traders and large, established financial corporations.
Bull A trader who believes that the price of an asset will rise.
Bull Market The financial market in which asset prices are rising.
Buy Limit Order An order to execute a transaction at a specified price (the limit) or lower.
CFD Initials for Contract for Difference. It is basically an agreement between an investor and an investment institution. When the agreement expires, the parties exchange the difference between the opening and the closing prices of a particular financial asset through cash payments.
Commission The fee paid to a brokerage firm for the service rendered in facilitating transactions.
Commodities A general name that refers to basic physical items that are either grown or mined. Examples include coffee, precious metals, and oil.
Commodity Pairs The three pairs of currencies in the foreign exchange market that are from countries with the most extensive quantities of commodities. These pairs are USD/CAD, AUD/USD, and NZD/USD.
Cross Currency Transaction A type of transaction in which two or more currencies are traded at the same time.
Currency Trading The act of participating in the exchange of one currency for another currency.
Demo Trader A trading account that enables a potential investor to review and get accustomed to the features of a trading platform using virtual money before engaging in actual trading.
ECN Broker A brokerage firm that employs electronic communication networks (ECNs) to enable major brokerages and individuals to benefit from the direct access to other markets.
Exotic As opposed to the major currencies which are heavily traded, exotics are the less traded currencies.
Fiat In the cryptocurrency space, the word fiat is used to describe traditional currencies as opposed to cryptocurrencies. The word means “it shall be” in Latin, referring to the fact that traditional currencies are simply declared to be legal tender by governments and are rarely backed by anything.
Fibonacci A popular tool used by technical analysts to identify potential support and resistance levels based on some key numbers.
Forex The short form of foreign exchange.
Fundamental Analysis A type of market analysis that evaluates the related economic, financial and other qualitative and quantitative aspects that affect the performance of a particular financial instrument.
Gap The disparity that exists on charts between the closing price of one trading session and the opening price of the subsequent trading session.
Hedging A trading strategy that involves developing techniques of reducing or avoiding extensive losses when trading in the financial markets.
Index Represents a group of representative stocks within a stock exchange. Some of the most popular indices are the S&P 500, NASDAQ and the FTSE 100.
Inflation The progressive rise in the price levels of goods and services in a country. When this happens, the purchasing power consequently decreases.
Leverage A financial tool that enables an investor to amplify his or her market exposure to a level that surpasses his or her initial capital.
Trading Glossary
Term Description
Limit Order An order to transact at a specified price or better.
Line Chart The simplest form of charting, a line chart plots a series of lines connecting the various price levels over a specified time period.
Liquidity The extent to which a financial instrument can be bought or sold with minimal or no effect to its price.
Long The act of opening a buy position in the market.
Lot Standardized method of trading in forex which requires a trade of 100,000 units of a particular currency.
Margin It is basically the amount of deposit needed to ensure the running positions in the market are kept active.
Margin Account An account provided by brokers that gives traders the opportunity to borrow funds to engage in securities transactions.
Margin Call The assertion by a brokerage firm that a trader adds more money to make up for probable losses.
Market Price The present price at which a financial instrument is being traded in the market.
Market Risk The likelihood that a trader will incur losses when the market conditions do not behave as initially expected.
Maximum Leverage The biggest position that a margin deposit would cover. At a leverage of 50, one could enter a maximum leveraged position of $100,000 by depositing $2,000 worth of margin.
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Moving Average Oscillators Method of smoothing out data on price charts so that trends are easier to spot. Average refers to a mathematical average or a statistical mean that is plotted over the original curve.
NASDAQ The biggest electronic stock exchange in the U.S.
NOK Interbank Rate Resistance Currency symbol for the Norwegian Krone.
NYSE The New York Stock Exchange.
NZD NZD is the currency symbol for the New Zealand Dollar.
Offer Also known as the Ask Price, it is the price at which a seller is willing to sell.
Open order An order that is running in the market until the trader chooses to close it.
Order An instruction to a brokerage firm to either buy or sell a financial instrument at the said price.
Pip The smallest unit of measurement used in determining exchange rates between currencies.
Platform The system or technology provided by brokers.
Price/Earnings Ratio (P/E) A common valuation method used to gauge a company’s profitability by assessing the connection between its stock’s price and its earnings per share.
Principal Value The initial capital that an individual invests for trading in the financial markets.
Quote When both a bid and ask price are provided for a currency pair.
Rate The price of one currency compared to another one. Also referred to as the exchange rate.
Resistance Price level at which technical analysts note persistent selling of a currency.
Risk Capital The amount of cash that an individual is ready to invest in the financial markets.
Risk Management The use of strategies to control or reduce financial risk. An example is a stop-loss order that minimizes maximum loss.
Sell Limit Order An order to execute a transaction only at a specified price (the limit) or higher.
Sell Stop A limit order with a limit placed below the current market price. Once triggered, the limit order becomes a market order.
Spot Buying and selling forex with the current date’s price for valuation, but where settlement usually takes place in two days.
Scalping A trading strategy that involves opening and closing short-term positions with the intention of making accumulated profits.
Spread The difference between the ask price and the bid price of a financial instrument.
Trailing stop loss Similar to a stop loss in that it limits potential losses in an open order. But unlike a simple stop loss where the threshold does not change, a trailing stop loss can be instructed to automatically adjust the limit price closer to the market price when the market price moves in your favor.
Technical Analysis A method of evaluating the movement of financial instruments through studying past market data, such as charts of price and volume, as a basis for forecasting future price behavior.