THE GLOSSARY
Trading jargon, translated.
Every term you'll meet in the Trading School and beyond — in the plain English the textbooks refuse to use. 40 terms and growing.
A
Ask
The price you buy at. Always a touch higher than the bid — the gap is the spread.
B
Base currency
The first currency in a pair. The price says how much of the second one unit of this buys.
Bearish
Expecting a price to fall. The bear swipes down.
Bid
The price you sell at.
Breakout
Price escaping a level it's been stuck under (or over). Real ones keep going; fake ones snap back and take beginners' money with them.
Bullish
Expecting a price to rise. The bull tosses up.
C
Candlestick
One bar of price history: open, high, low, close, drawn so you can read the fight at a glance.
Central bank
A country's money authority (Bank of England, the Fed). The single biggest force in forex.
Cross
A pair without the US dollar in it, like EUR/GBP.
D
Drawdown
How far your account has fallen from its peak. The number that decides whether you survive long enough to be right.
E
Economic calendar
The diary of scheduled news releases — rate decisions, jobs numbers, inflation prints — that move markets.
Entry
The price where your trade opens.
Exotic
A major currency paired with a smaller economy's. Wide spreads, sudden moves — not a beginner's playground.
F
Fill
The actual price your order executed at, which is not always the price you asked for.
Fundamentals
The economic story behind a currency: growth, inflation, interest rates, politics.
G
Going long
Buying — profiting if the price rises.
Going short
Selling first — profiting if the price falls. Completely normal in forex.
L
Leverage
Trading with more exposure than your deposit. Multiplies both directions — the loaded word in retail trading.
Liquidity
How easily you can trade without moving the price. Majors have oceans of it; exotics have puddles.
Lot
A standard position size: 100,000 units of the base currency. Minis (10k) and micros (1k) exist for sane humans.
M
Major
A heavyweight dollar pair: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and friends. Tightest costs, deepest markets.
Margin
The deposit your broker holds while a leveraged trade is open.
Margin call
The broker telling you your account can no longer support your open trades. You never want the call.
P
Pip
The market's inch — the standard unit of price movement, usually the fourth decimal place.
Pipette
A tenth of a pip. Fine print.
Position sizing
Deciding how much to trade so a normal loss stays boring. The most underrated skill in the game.
Q
Quote currency
The second currency in a pair — the one the price is counted in.
R
R-multiple
Profit or loss measured in units of what you risked. Risked £50, made £100 — that's +2R. The only honest scoreboard.
Range
A market bouncing between a floor and a ceiling, going nowhere with enthusiasm.
Resistance
A ceiling where selling has repeatedly shown up.
Retest
Price returning to a broken level to check it holds from the other side. The polite entry.
Risk-reward
What you stand to make versus what you're risking. 2:1 means the win pays double the loss.
S
Slippage
The difference between the price you wanted and the price you got, usually in fast markets.
Spread
The gap between bid and ask — the cost of every trade, paid on the way in.
Stop loss
The pre-set exit that caps a loss when the idea is proven wrong. Non-negotiable in our book.
Support
A floor where buying has repeatedly shown up. The market's memory.
Swap
The small overnight charge (or credit) for holding a position, driven by interest-rate gaps.
T
Take profit
The pre-set exit that banks the win at your target.
Trend
The market's prevailing direction — higher highs and higher lows up, the mirror down.
V
Volatility
How violently a market moves. Opportunity and danger are the same number.
Educational content only — never financial advice. Capital at risk. 18+.