SignalBots Trading Glossary
Plain-English definitions for everything in the signal-automation world — signals, latency, bots, Expert Advisors, platform connectors, browser extensions, execution quality and risk metrics. No generic market filler; every term earns its place in how you actually trade.
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A
API Rate Limiting
API rate limiting is the cap a broker or exchange puts on how many requests your program may send in a given window, and what happens when you exceed…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyAPK Sideloading
APK sideloading is installing an Android application from its package file directly, rather than through an app store, by downloading the .apk and ap…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingAccount-Bound License
An account-bound license is a way of activating a trading extension or tool so that it works only with one specific trading account - the one it is r…
Read definition Signal MechanicsActive vs Closed Signal
An active signal is one that is still live in the market, running toward its target or its stop. A closed signal has already settled - it hit the tak…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsAlert Firing Frequency
Alert firing frequency is the setting that decides when a chart alert is allowed to trigger: the moment its condition first turns true inside a formi…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsAlgo Trading Permission
Algo trading permission is a simple on/off setting inside MetaTrader, the trading platform, that controls whether automated tools are allowed to actu…
Read definition Automation & BotsAlgorithmic Trading
Algorithmic trading means using coded rules to decide and place trades automatically, with no discretionary clicking - the entries, exits and positio…
Read definition Execution QualityAll-In Round-Trip Cost
All-in round-trip cost is every charge a single completed trade incurs, spread plus commission both ways plus any overnight financing, expressed as o…
Read definition Automation & BotsAnti-Martingale
Anti-Martingale is a position-sizing approach that does the opposite of the classic martingale: you increase your size after a winning trade and cut …
Read definition Automation & BotsArbitrage Bot
An arbitrage bot is an automated program that tries to profit from tiny, short-lived price differences for the same or closely related instrument acr…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationAuto-Click Trading
Auto-click trading is a browser-extension feature that clicks the broker's trade buttons for you the moment a signal fires, executing binary trades h…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingAuto-Fill Trade Ticket
Auto-fill trade ticket means the extension automatically writes the details of a trade into your broker's order form, so you do not have to type them…
Read definition Automation & BotsAuto-Trading
Auto-trading means letting software place and manage your trades automatically from a set of signals or rules, so you no longer have to click each or…
Read definition Execution QualityAMM: Automated Market Maker
An automated market maker is a pricing formula that replaces the order book: instead of matching your buy against someone else's sell, you trade agai…
Read definition Signal MechanicsADR: Average Daily Range
Average daily range is the average distance between the daily high and the daily low over a lookback window, usually 5, 10 or 20 days, expressed in p…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsAverage Holding Time
Average holding time is the typical length of time a trade stays open, measured from entry to exit and then averaged across many trades. It is the si…
Read definition Signal MechanicsATR: Average True Range
Average True Range is a volatility measure: it reports how far an instrument has typically travelled per bar over a lookback window, usually 14 bars,…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsAverage Win / Average Loss
Average win and average loss are two simple numbers that describe how big your typical winning trade is versus how big your typical losing trade is. …
Read definitionB
Backdating
Backdating is presenting a simulated history as if it were live trading - the equity curve starts years before the strategy existed, because those ye…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsBacktest
A backtest is the process of running a strategy's rules over historical market data to estimate how it would have performed if it had been traded in …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsBalance vs Equity
Balance and equity are two numbers your trading platform shows side by side, and beginners often confuse them. Balance is the settled cash in your ac…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowBPR: Balanced Price Range
A balanced price range is the overlap between a bullish fair value gap and a bearish fair value gap in the same price area. Price delivers hard one w…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsBar Replay
Bar replay is a charting feature that rewinds a chart to a chosen date in the past and then reveals price one bar at a time, hiding everything to the…
Read definition Execution QualityBid / Ask Price
The bid and ask are the two prices a market quotes for any instrument at the same moment. The bid is the highest price buyers are currently willing t…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationBinary Options Bot
A binary options bot is software that places binary-option trades automatically from signals or rules, handling the direction (Call or Put), the stak…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationBinary Options Signal
A binary options signal is a short, ready-to-act suggestion that tells you three things: which asset to trade, which direction to pick (Call if you t…
Read definition Automation & BotsBlack Box (Trading System)
A black box trading system is one whose internal logic you cannot inspect: you see the data going in and the trades coming out, but the rule that con…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)BOS: Break of Structure
A break of structure is the moment price closes beyond the most recent significant swing point in the same direction as the existing trend, confirmin…
Read definition Signal MechanicsBreak-Even Stop
A break-even stop means moving your stop loss up to your original entry price once a trade has moved far enough in your favour. At that point the wor…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsBreak-Even Win Rate
The break-even win rate is the percentage of trades a strategy must win, at a given reward-to-risk ratio, just to finish flat. It comes from one lin…
Read definition Signal MechanicsBreakaway Gap
A breakaway gap is a price gap that opens at the start of a new move — price jumps out of a consolidation range or clean through a well-watched level…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowBB: Breaker Block
A breaker block is an order block that failed. Price traded back through it, broke structure the other way, and the zone now works in the opposite di…
Read definition Automation & BotsBreakout Strategy
A breakout strategy enters when price leaves a defined range, on the reasoning that the level which had been holding price in has stopped working and…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsBroker API
An API, short for Application Programming Interface, is simply a way for two pieces of software to talk to each other directly. A broker API, then, i…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingBroker Page Automation
Broker Page Automation is when a browser extension operates your broker's website for you - reading what is on the page and clicking its buttons - th…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowBuy-Side & Sell-Side Imbalance
BISI and SIBI are the directional names for a three-candle fair value gap. BISI stands for buy-side imbalance, sell-side inefficiency: the gap left b…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)BSL/SSL: Buy-Side & Sell-Side Liquidity
Buy-side and sell-side liquidity describe where orders are resting on a chart: buy-side liquidity sits above highs, sell-side liquidity sits below lo…
Read definitionC
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)
CAGR, or Compound Annual Growth Rate, is the single smoothed yearly rate that would have grown your starting balance into your ending balance over a …
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationCall / Put (Up / Down)
Call and Put are the two directions of a basic binary option, often labelled Up and Down on broker platforms. A Call (Up) is a bet that the asset's p…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)CRT: Candle Range Theory
Candle range theory reads a single higher-timeframe candle as a complete four-phase story - open, accumulate, manipulate, distribute - that the lower…
Read definition Signal MechanicsCandlestick Chart
A candlestick chart draws each time interval as a single candle: a rectangular body spanning the open and the close, and thin wicks reaching up to th…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsCapital Allocation Cap
A capital allocation cap is the maximum total funded capital a prop firm will place with one trader across every account they hold, no matter how man…
Read definition Automation & BotsCarry Trade
A carry trade holds a currency pair in the direction that pays interest, earning the difference between the two countries' policy rates for as long a…
Read definition Execution QualityCash Index CFD vs Futures Index CFD
Index CFDs come in two forms that look identical on a chart and behave differently in an account: a cash CFD tracks the index right now and never exp…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)CBDR: Central Bank Dealers Range
The Central Bank Dealers Range, or CBDR, is the high-to-low price range a currency pair forms between roughly 14:00 and 20:00 New York time — the qui…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsChallenge Reset
A challenge reset is the paid option to restore a failed or stalled prop-firm evaluation to its starting balance and begin the phase again, without b…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)CISD: Change in State of Delivery
A change in state of delivery - CISD - is a candle-level confirmation that price has stopped delivering in one direction and started delivering in th…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)CHoCH: Change of Character
A change of character is the first break of structure that runs against the prevailing trend - the moment price violates the swing point that was hol…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsChasing a Trade
Chasing is entering after the move has already run, at a price the plan never specified, because waiting for the planned level now feels like missing…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsClient Order ID
A client order ID is a unique reference string that your own code attaches to every order request it sends a broker or exchange, so that if the same …
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyClock Drift / Time Sync
Clock drift is the slow, gradual way two computers' internal clocks fall out of agreement with each other over time, even when they started out match…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyCo-location
Co-location is renting rack space inside the same data centre that houses a broker's or exchange's matching engine, so your trading server sits metre…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyColocation
Colocation is renting rack space for your trading server inside the same data centre that houses the exchange's matching engine, so your orders trave…
Read definition Execution QualityCommission
Commission is a direct fee your broker charges for executing a trade, billed separately from the spread. It is most visible on raw or ECN accounts, w…
Read definition Signal MechanicsCOT: Commitment of Traders Report
The Commitment of Traders report is a weekly breakdown, published by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, of who holds the open futures posit…
Read definition Signal MechanicsConfirmation Candle
A confirmation candle is a completed price bar that validates a setup before a signal is treated as real. To understand it, picture a price chart mad…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsConsecutive Losses (Losing Streak)
Consecutive losses, or a losing streak, is a run of trades that lose money one after another with no winner in between. The figure traders care about…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowCE: Consequent Encroachment
Consequent encroachment, almost always written CE, is the exact 50% midpoint of a PD array - most often a fair value gap, though the same arithmetic …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsConsistency Rule
A consistency rule caps how much of your total profit is allowed to come from a single day or a single trade, so a funded account cannot be won by on…
Read definition Signal MechanicsContango vs Backwardation
Contango and backwardation describe the shape of a futures curve: in contango the later contract months trade above the front month, and in backwarda…
Read definition Execution QualityContract Roll
A contract roll is closing an expiring futures position and reopening the same exposure in the next contract month, so the position survives past the…
Read definition Signal MechanicsCFD: Contract for Difference
A contract for difference is an agreement with a broker to exchange the change in an asset's price between opening and closing a position, without ev…
Read definition Automation & BotsCooldown Period
A cooldown period is a forced wait your bot enforces between trades, blocking it from opening a new position until a set time has passed. It is usual…
Read definition Automation & BotsCopy Stop-Loss
A copy stop-loss is a protective exit you set on your own copied position or on your whole copy relationship, so a trade closes on your terms even wh…
Read definition Automation & BotsCopy Trading
Copy trading lets you automatically mirror the trades of another, more experienced trader in your own account. When the trader you follow - often cal…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsCorrelated Exposure Cap
A correlated exposure cap is a rule limiting your combined position size across instruments that move together, so several separate-looking trades ca…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsCounterparty Risk
Counterparty risk is the risk that the party on the other side of your position or holding your money fails to deliver - and it is the one exposure t…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsCurrency Correlation
Currency correlation measures how closely two pairs move together, on a scale from +1, where they move in lockstep, through 0, where there is no rela…
Read definition Signal MechanicsCurrency Pair
A currency pair is the two-currency price quote every forex trade is written against: the first currency is the base, the second is the quote, and th…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorscBot
A cBot is cTrader's automated trading program: a strategy written in C# that runs inside the platform and places, manages and closes orders on your a…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorscTrader
cTrader is a trading platform, meaning the software you use to view charts and place trades through your broker, and it is the main alternative to th…
Read definitionD
DCA Bot
A DCA bot, short for dollar-cost averaging bot, is an automated strategy that adds to an existing position at intervals or as the price moves against…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)Daily Bias
Your daily bias is the direction you expect price to deliver in over the current trading day, decided before the session from higher-timeframe eviden…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsDaily Loss Limit
A daily loss limit is the maximum a prop-firm account may lose within a single trading day before the firm closes it - a hard floor that resets at th…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)OLHC: Daily OHLC Profile
The daily OHLC profile is the order in which a day builds its open, high, low and close - and on a bullish day that order is usually open, low, high,…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyData Feed
A data feed is the stream of prices your platform, indicator or bot actually reads - and it is one vendor's version of the market, not the market its…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)DR: Dealing Range
A dealing range is the span between the most recent significant swing high and swing low that price is currently delivering within - the frame inside…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyDelivery Channel
A delivery channel is simply any path a trading signal can travel along to reach you. The same signal can be sent to you in several different ways, a…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingDemo / Real Account Toggle
A demo / real account toggle is a switch that tells the extension which kind of account to operate on: a demo account, which uses pretend money for p…
Read definition Automation & BotsDemo Account
A demo account is a fully functional trading account funded with simulated money, so every order routes through the platform at live prices while no …
Read definition Execution QualityDepth of Market (DOM)
Depth of market, often shown as a DOM window or order book, is a live list of the buy and sell orders waiting at each price level around the current …
Read definition Execution QualityDirect Market Access (DMA)
Direct Market Access is an execution model in which your order is placed straight into the venue's order book under the broker's membership, rather t…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)Displacement
Displacement is a fast, one-directional move that breaks a level with obvious force and leaves an imbalance behind it, rather than drifting through t…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)DOL: Draw on Liquidity
Draw on liquidity is the level price is most likely travelling toward - the pool of resting orders acting as the session's magnet. It answers 'where …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsDD: Drawdown
Drawdown is the drop in your account's value from its highest point down to a lower point, before it climbs back to a new high. Imagine your account …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsDrawdown Anchor
A drawdown anchor is the reference point a prop firm measures your maximum drawdown from - either the fixed starting balance, or a high-water mark th…
Read definitionE
ECN Broker
An ECN broker routes your orders straight to an electronic network of banks, funds, and other traders, matching you with the best available price ins…
Read definition Signal MechanicsEconomic Calendar
An economic calendar is the published schedule of upcoming data releases and central-bank events, listing for each one its date, exact release time, …
Read definition Signal MechanicsEntry Price
The entry price is the exact price at which a signal wants you to open your trade. It is the starting line of the position. There are two common ways…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)Equal Highs & Equal Lows
Equal highs and equal lows are two or more swing points that finish at nearly the same price, leaving a flat, obvious ceiling or floor on the chart. …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowEQ: Equilibrium
Equilibrium is the 50% level of a price range - the midpoint between a swing high and the swing low that preceded it, and the line dividing everythin…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsEquity Curve
An equity curve is a chart that plots the value of a trading account over time. Instead of giving you just a single final profit number, it shows the…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsEvaluation Model
An evaluation model is the structure a prop firm uses to decide whether to fund you: how many phases you must clear, what profit target each one carr…
Read definition Execution QualityExecution Speed
Execution speed is how quickly your order actually gets filled once it has been submitted to the broker. It is one half of the journey from a trading…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)Exit Liquidity
Exit liquidity is the buying that lets someone already positioned sell a large holding without collapsing the price - and being exit liquidity means …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsExpectancy
Expectancy is the average result you can expect from a single trade once you have taken many trades, based on past data. It blends two things into on…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsExpert Advisor (EA)
An Expert Advisor, almost always shortened to EA, is a small trading program that lives inside MetaTrader, the most common desktop platform retail fo…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationExpiry Time
Expiry time is the exact moment a binary option settles, when the asset's price is compared with your entry price to decide whether the trade won or …
Read definition Browser Extension TradingExtension Permissions
Extension permissions are the set of things your browser allows an extension to do once you install it - which websites it can read, what it is allow…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)External & Internal Range Liquidity
External and internal range liquidity split the liquidity in a dealing range into two places: external range liquidity (ERL) sits at the range's edge…
Read definitionF
FIFO Rule
The FIFO rule requires that when you hold several positions on the same symbol, the oldest one is closed first - first in, first out. It is a US regu…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsFIX API
FIX stands for Financial Information eXchange, and a FIX API is a standardised, very fast way for trading software to send orders straight to a broke…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)FTR: Failed to Return
A failed to return is the pullback zone inside an impulse leg that price never traded fully back into before breaking structure again. You mark the s…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyFailover Delivery
Failover delivery is a safety arrangement where, if the main path used to send you a signal fails for any reason, the system automatically routes tha…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowFVG: Fair Value Gap
A fair value gap is a price range that a fast move skipped over - a three-candle pattern where the first candle's high sits below the third candle's …
Read definition Signal MechanicsFalse Signal
A false signal is an entry trigger that looks valid at the moment it fires but the move it points to never really develops, often reversing almost im…
Read definition Execution QualityFill Rate
Fill rate is the share of your orders that actually get executed at or near the price you wanted, rather than being rejected, requoted, or filled wit…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)FPOL: First Point of Liquidity
The first point of liquidity is the nearest pool of resting orders in the direction price is travelling - the first place a move has an obvious reaso…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsFloating P&L
Floating profit or loss, also called unrealised P&L, is what you would gain or lose if you closed every open position right at this moment. It is not…
Read definition Signal MechanicsForecast Horizon
A forecast horizon is how far ahead a prediction is meant to apply, and it is the piece of information that makes any market call testable rather tha…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsForward Test (Paper Trading)
A forward test means running a strategy on live, unfolding market data that it has never seen before, usually on a demo or simulated account, to chec…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsFunded Account
A funded account is the trading account a prop firm hands you after you pass its evaluation: the firm's capital, your decisions, and a rulebook that …
Read definition Signal MechanicsFunding Rate
The funding rate is a recurring payment exchanged directly between long and short holders of a perpetual contract, and it is the mechanism that keeps…
Read definition Signal MechanicsFutures Contract
A futures contract is a standardized, exchange-traded agreement to buy or sell a fixed quantity of an asset at an agreed price on a specific future d…
Read definitionG
Gold-Silver Ratio
The gold-silver ratio is simply how many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys, calculated by dividing the gold price by the silver price. With go…
Read definition Automation & BotsGrid Bot
A grid bot is an automated strategy that places a ladder of buy and sell orders at fixed price intervals above and below the current price, aiming to…
Read definitionH
Hedging Bot
A hedging bot is an automated strategy that opens offsetting positions to cap your exposure or lock in a price range, rather than betting purely on o…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsHedging vs Netting Account
Hedging and netting are two different ways a trading account keeps track of your positions on the same instrument, and the difference matters a lot f…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)HOD / LOD: High and Low of Day
The high of day and low of day are simply the highest and lowest prices an instrument has traded so far in the current session. They update live as t…
Read definition Execution QualityHFT: High-Frequency Trading
High-frequency trading is automated trading in which speed itself is the edge: orders are placed, amended and cancelled in microseconds, and the iden…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)High-Resistance & Low-Resistance Liquidity Runs
A liquidity run is price travelling from where it is now to a pool of resting orders - a cluster of stops above old highs or below old lows. The run …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsHWM: High-Water Mark
A high-water mark is the highest equity an account has ever reached, and it is the line that must be passed before a manager earns another performanc…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)Higher & Lower Time Frame (HTF / LTF)
Higher time frame (HTF) and lower time frame (LTF) are the two roles a chart plays in top-down analysis: the higher time frame tells you which direct…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsHistorical Win Rate
Historical win rate is the share of past trades or signals that finished profitable, measured over a defined sample and written as a percentage. If a…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingHotkey Trading
Hotkey trading means placing or managing trades using keyboard shortcuts instead of moving the mouse and clicking buttons. A hotkey is simply a key, …
Read definition Automation & BotsHybrid Trading
Hybrid trading splits the work between a program and a person: software handles the parts that reward speed and repetition, and the trader keeps the …
Read definitionI
ICT Macro Times
ICT macro times are short, fixed windows within a session - typically the last ten minutes of one hour and the first ten of the next - when price is …
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)ICT Unicorn
The ICT unicorn is an entry model that requires a breaker block and a fair value gap to overlap on the same price range, traded in the direction of a…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowImplied Fair Value Gap
An implied fair value gap is an imbalance that hides inside a three-candle sequence whose wicks overlap, so no visible gap appears - the inefficiency…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationITM / OTM: In-the-Money / Out-of-the-Money
In-the-money (ITM) and out-of-the-money (OTM) describe where a binary option stands relative to winning at any moment before it settles. A Call is in…
Read definition Execution QualityIndex Rebalancing & Reconstitution
Index rebalancing is the scheduled adjustment of how much weight each existing member carries in an index; reconstitution is the less frequent event …
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)IDM: Inducement
Inducement is a minor high or low that forms before the level a trader is actually waiting for, and whose practical effect is to attract early entrie…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsInstant Funding
Instant funding is a prop model where you pay for a funded account outright and trade its live rules from day one, with no evaluation phase to pass f…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowIOF: Institutional Order Flow
Institutional order flow, in the ICT and Smart Money framework, is the directional intent that large participants are assumed to have left behind in …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowIOFED: Institutional Order Flow Entry Drill
The institutional order flow entry drill is a fixed entry routine: once you have decided the direction, you enter at the near edge of the first fair …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowIPDA: Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm
The Interbank Price Delivery Algorithm, or IPDA, is ICT's model of the market as an algorithmic engine that delivers price between pools of liquidity…
Read definition Automation & BotsIntrabar Execution
Intrabar execution means an order triggers inside a candle rather than at its close, so the fill happens at whatever price the market touched during …
Read definition Signal MechanicsInventory Report
An inventory report is a scheduled release of how much of a commodity is currently sitting in storage, and it is one of the sharpest recurring volati…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowIFVG: Inversion Fair Value Gap
An inversion fair value gap is a fair value gap that failed. Price traded through it and closed on the other side, so the gap stops acting as support…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsInvestor vs Master Password
Every MetaTrader account ships with two passwords that do very different jobs, and knowing the difference is what keeps your account safe when you le…
Read definitionK
Kelly Criterion
The Kelly criterion is a formula for deciding how much of your capital to risk on a trade so your account grows as fast as possible over the long run…
Read definition Automation & BotsKill Switch
A kill switch is a single control that instantly halts all of your automated trading and, depending on how it is set up, can also close any open posi…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)KZ: Killzone
A killzone is a short window of the trading day - usually two to three hours around a session open - when ICT traders expect the day's meaningful mov…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsKYC: Know-Your-Customer Verification
Know-Your-Customer verification, universally shortened to KYC, is the identity check a prop firm, broker or exchange runs before it will release mone…
Read definitionL
Latency Arbitrage
Latency arbitrage is trading against a price quote that has not caught up with the real market yet. The arbitrageur watches the true price on a faste…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLeverage
Leverage is the ratio that decides how much of your own money a broker locks as margin to hold a position, so 1:100 leverage means roughly 1,000 doll…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLiquidation Cascade
A liquidation cascade is a self-feeding chain reaction in which forced closures of leveraged positions push price further in the same direction, trig…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLiquidation Price
The liquidation price is the level at which the exchange force-closes your leveraged position because the margin backing it has fallen to the mainten…
Read definition Execution QualityLiquidity
Liquidity is how easily you can buy or sell an instrument in the size you want without your own order pushing the price around. A highly liquid marke…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)LP: Liquidity Pool
In smart-money trading, a liquidity pool is a concentration of resting orders at an obvious price level - typically the stop-losses clustered just be…
Read definition Execution QualityLP: Liquidity Provider
A liquidity provider is the bank, hedge fund, or specialist trading firm that actually stands on the other side of your order when your broker passes…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)Liquidity Sweep
A liquidity sweep is a move that pushes just far enough past an obvious high or low to trigger the orders resting there, then reverses instead of con…
Read definition Liquidity Concepts (Smart Money)LV: Liquidity Void
A liquidity void is a stretch of chart that price crossed in one fast, one-sided move, so almost no two-way trading took place there - typically a ru…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLive Trading
Live trading is running a strategy on a real-money account, where orders reach the market, fills are real, and the result is your actual capital rath…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingLocal-Only Execution
Local-only execution means the trading extension does its work entirely inside your own browser, on your own device, without sending your trades or l…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLook-Ahead Bias
Look-ahead bias is a backtest error in which the strategy acts on information that did not exist yet at the moment it acted. It rarely arrives as an…
Read definition Automation & BotsLot Multiplier
A lot multiplier is a setting used when you copy or mirror another account's trades, and it scales the size of their positions to fit yours. When you…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsLot Size
A lot is the standardised unit forex position size is expressed in, and one standard lot is 100,000 units of the pair's base currency. Three sizes c…
Read definitionM
MQL: MQL4 / MQL5
MQL is short for MetaQuotes Language, the programming language used to build automated tools inside MetaTrader, the popular trading platform. There a…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsMT4/MT5 Connector
An MT4/MT5 connector is a piece of software that acts as a bridge between a signal source and your MetaTrader trading platform. MetaTrader (in its MT…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsMagic Number
A magic number is a simple numeric tag that an Expert Advisor (an automated trading robot inside MetaTrader) stamps onto every order it places. It do…
Read definition Signal MechanicsMajor, Cross, and Exotic Pairs
Majors, crosses and exotics are the three tiers every forex pair falls into, ranked by how much money flows through them: majors always involve the U…
Read definition Execution QualityMaker Fee vs Taker Fee
Maker and taker fees are the two prices an exchange charges depending on whether your order added liquidity to the book or removed it, and the gap be…
Read definition Automation & BotsManaged Account
A managed account is a trading account in your own name that a professional trades on your behalf under a limited power of attorney, so the money sta…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingMV3: Manifest V3
Manifest V3, often shortened to MV3, is the current set of rules that Chrome and similar browsers require extensions to follow. Every extension inclu…
Read definition Automation & BotsManual Trading
Manual trading is placing every order yourself, deciding trade by trade whether a setup qualifies and clicking to enter and exit, rather than delegat…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMargin Call
A margin call is your broker's warning that account equity has fallen too close to the margin reserved for your open positions, and that you must add…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMargin Requirement
Margin requirement is the portion of a position's full value that your broker reserves as collateral before the position can be opened. One standard…
Read definition Execution QualityMark Price
The mark price is the reference price an exchange uses to value your open position and decide whether it should be liquidated, and it is deliberately…
Read definition Execution QualityMarket / Limit / Stop Order
There are three core ways to tell your broker how to enter or exit a trade, and choosing the right one shapes whether you get in at all and at what p…
Read definition Execution QualityMarket Maker (Dealing Desk) Broker
A market maker broker, also called a dealing desk broker, takes the other side of your trade from its own book instead of passing your order out to t…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)MMXM: Market Maker Models
A market maker model is a four-phase roadmap of a complete move: accumulation, manipulation, distribution, and reversal - laid out as a single templa…
Read definition Signal MechanicsMarket Regime
A market regime is the prevailing behaviour of a market over a stretch of time - trending, ranging, or volatile - and it decides which strategies hav…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMarket Regime Change
A market regime change is the moment the market's underlying behaviour shifts to something a model has never seen - a new policy stance, a broken cor…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)Market Structure Highs & Lows
Market structure highs and lows are the sequence of swing points that defines trend direction: higher highs with higher lows is bullish structure, lo…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)MSS: Market Structure Shift
A market structure shift is a change of character that arrives with force: price first sweeps an obvious liquidity level, then breaks the opposing sw…
Read definition Automation & BotsMartingale Strategy
The martingale strategy is a money-management approach that increases the size of your next position after every loss, on the idea that a single even…
Read definition Execution QualityMatching Engine
A matching engine is the software at the centre of an exchange or trading venue that holds every resting order and pairs buyers with sellers accordin…
Read definition Automation & BotsMax Open Trades Limit
A max open trades limit is a cap on how many positions an automated system is allowed to hold at the same time, no matter how many signals arrive. Wi…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMax DD: Maximum Drawdown
Maximum drawdown is the single largest drop from a high point to a low point that an account or strategy went through during a tested or live period.…
Read definition Automation & BotsMean Reversion
Mean reversion is the idea that when a price moves unusually far from its recent average, it tends to drift back toward that average rather than keep…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowMT: Mean Threshold
The mean threshold is the 50% level of an order block - the midpoint between the block's open and its extreme. It is the precise line inside the zone…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsMetaTrader 4 (MT4)
MetaTrader 4, almost always called MT4, is a free trading platform, meaning the software you install on your computer or phone to view price charts a…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsMetaTrader 5 (MT5)
MetaTrader 5, usually written MT5, is the newer version of the MetaTrader trading platform, the software you install to chart prices and send orders …
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsMetaTrader Data Folder
The MetaTrader data folder is the per-installation directory where the terminal keeps everything you add to it: Expert Advisors, indicators, scripts,…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMinimum Hold Time
A minimum hold time is a rule setting how long a position must stay open to count as a valid trade - anything closed faster is voided, stripped of it…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMinimum Trading Days
A minimum trading days rule is the number of separate days on which you must place at least one qualifying trade before a phase can be passed or a pa…
Read definition Automation & BotsMirror Trading
Mirror trading means automatically copying the trades of a predefined strategy into your own account. It is closely related to copy trading, with one…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowMB: Mitigation Block
A mitigation block is the zone traders return to in order to close trapped positions at break-even. It forms when price fails to make a new high or l…
Read definition Automation & BotsMomentum Trading
Momentum trading is the strategy of buying what is already rising and selling what is already falling, on the premise that a move with force behind i…
Read definition Automation & BotsMoney Manager
A money manager is a professional who trades other people's capital under a formal arrangement, holding discretion over what is bought and sold while…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsMonte Carlo Simulation
A Monte Carlo simulation takes a strategy's set of past trades and reshuffles or resamples them thousands of times to map the wide range of equity pa…
Read definition Signal MechanicsMA: Moving Average
A moving average is the average closing price over the last N bars, recalculated on every new bar, drawn as a line that smooths price into a single r…
Read definition Signal MechanicsMTF: Multi-Timeframe Confirmation
Multi-timeframe confirmation means a setup must agree across two or more chart timeframes before a signal is allowed to fire. A timeframe is simply h…
Read definitionN
Negative-Balance Protection
Negative-balance protection is a broker commitment that your account cannot fall below zero, so a price gap that overshoots the stop-out cannot leave…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)NDOG: New Day and New Week Opening Gap
A new day opening gap is the untraded band between the 5pm New York close and the 6pm New York reopen, and a new week opening gap is the same thing a…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsNews Blackout Window
A news blackout window is a stretch of time around a scheduled high-impact economic release during which your funded-account rules forbid trading. T…
Read definition Automation & BotsNews Filter
A news filter is a rule that pauses automated trading around scheduled high-impact news events, such as central-bank rate decisions or major economic…
Read definition Execution QualityNDD: No Dealing Desk
A no dealing desk broker passes your order straight to external liquidity providers instead of taking the other side of it, so it earns from spread a…
Read definition Execution QualityNon-Custodial
Non-custodial means you hold the private keys to your own assets, so no exchange, broker or platform can move them, freeze them, or lose them on your…
Read definitionO
OCO Order
An OCO order, short for One-Cancels-the-Other, links two orders together so that the moment one of them fills, the other is cancelled automatically. …
Read definition Signal MechanicsOHLC / OHLCV Data
OHLC data is the four numbers that summarise one candle: the open, the high, the low and the close for that interval. Add traded volume and it become…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationOTC Market (Over-the-Counter)
The OTC market, short for over-the-counter, refers to synthetic prices that a broker quotes itself rather than prices set by a central exchange. In b…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)OTE: Optimal Trade Entry
Optimal trade entry is a retracement zone - the band between the 62% and 79% pullback of an impulsive move - where traders look to join that move ins…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowOB: Order Block
An order block is the last opposing candle before a strong directional move - the down candle that precedes a rally, or the up candle that precedes a…
Read definition Execution QualityOrder Duration (GTC / IOC / FOK)
Order duration, also called time-in-force, is the instruction that tells the broker how long a pending order is allowed to stay alive before it eithe…
Read definition Execution QualityOrder Rejection
An order rejection is when the broker refuses to accept your order at all, so no trade is placed. Unlike slippage, where you fill at a slightly worse…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsOOS: Out-of-Sample Test
An out-of-sample test checks a strategy on data that it was never optimised on. The idea is simple: before you start tuning a strategy, you set aside…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsOverfitting (Curve Fitting)
Overfitting, also called curve fitting, happens when a strategy is tuned so tightly to past data that it ends up describing the random noise in that …
Read definitionP
PAMM / MAM Account
PAMM and MAM are the two standard broker structures that let one manager trade many client accounts from a single terminal, with every trade allocate…
Read definition Automation & BotsParameter Optimization
Parameter optimization is running a strategy across many combinations of its inputs to find which settings performed best on a stretch of historical …
Read definition Execution QualityPartial Fill
A partial fill is when only part of the size you ordered actually gets executed, because there was not enough trading interest available at your pric…
Read definition Signal MechanicsPartial Take Profit (TP1 / TP2 / TP3)
Partial take profit means closing your position in pieces at successive target levels instead of exiting the whole trade at a single price. These tar…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsPayout Cycle
A payout cycle is the schedule on which a funded trader can request their share of profits - the fixed interval between one withdrawal and the next. …
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationPayout Percentage
The payout percentage is the fixed profit a binary option pays when it finishes in your favour. An 80 percent payout, for example, means a winning 10…
Read definition Execution QualityPending Order
A pending order is an instruction to enter a trade at a price the market has not reached yet, so it sits at the broker waiting and only becomes a pos…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsPerformance Fee
A performance fee is the share of new profit a manager, strategy provider or copy leader takes as payment, charged only on gains and only above the a…
Read definition Signal MechanicsPerpetual Contract
A perpetual contract is a leveraged derivative that tracks an asset's price but never expires, so a position stays open until you close it or it is l…
Read definition Execution QualityPhysical Delivery vs Cash Settlement
Settlement method is what happens when a contract expires: a physically delivered contract obliges the holder to exchange the actual asset, while a c…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsPine Script
Pine Script is the built-in programming language of TradingView, the widely used web-based charting site. It lets you write your own custom indicator…
Read definition Execution QualityPip
A pip is the smallest standard price increment of a currency pair, and on almost every pair it is the fourth decimal place: EUR/USD moving from 1.085…
Read definition Execution QualityPip Value
Pip value is the money value of a one-pip price move for a given position size and currency pair. It converts price moves into profit and loss, so yo…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowPOI: Point of Interest
A point of interest is any price area you have marked in advance where you expect a reaction and will look for an entry. It is a container term, not …
Read definition Automation & BotsPosition Sizing Rule
A position sizing rule decides how large each trade should be, and it is one of the most important controls in all of trading. Rather than guessing o…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)PO3: Power of Three
Power of Three is the idea that a single candle - usually a daily or weekly one - is built in three phases: price accumulates in a tight range, manip…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowPremium & Discount
Premium and discount describe the two halves of a price range measured from its low to its high: everything above the 50% midpoint is premium, everyt…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)PDH: Previous Day High and Low
The previous day high and low are yesterday's extreme prices, and they matter because they are the two levels almost every intraday trader can see - …
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)PSH: Previous Session High and Low
The previous session high and low are the extremes of the trading session that just ended - most often the Asian range, read at the London open, or t…
Read definition Execution QualityPrice Gap
A price gap is a jump in price with no trading in between, so the market skips over a range of levels rather than passing smoothly through them. Norm…
Read definition Execution QualityPrice Improvement
Price improvement is when your order fills at a better price than the one you saw or asked for. For a buy, that means a lower fill price; for a sell,…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsPF: Profit Factor
Profit factor is a single number that compares the total money a strategy made on its winning trades to the total money it lost on its losing trades …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsProfit Split
A profit split is the agreed percentage of a funded account's profit that goes to the trader, with the remainder kept by the firm that supplied the c…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsProfit Target
A profit target is the gain an evaluation account must reach to pass - stated as a percentage of the starting balance and measured on the account as …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsProp Firm
A prop firm - short for proprietary trading firm - is a company that puts its own capital behind traders who prove they can follow a risk rulebook, a…
Read definition Automation & BotsProportional Copying
Proportional copying is the sizing method a copy-trading platform uses by default: each follower receives the leader's trade scaled to their own acco…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowPB: Propulsion Block
A propulsion block is an order block that forms inside the range of an earlier order block pointing the same way, so the second zone sits on top of t…
Read definition Execution QualityPump and Dump
A pump and dump is a scheme in which organisers accumulate a thinly traded asset quietly, generate a burst of buying with coordinated promotion, and …
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyPush Notification Alert
A push notification alert is a message delivered straight to your phone or web browser by an app's notification system the moment a trading signal is…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyPush vs Polling
Push and polling are two different ways your device can find out about a new trading signal. With push delivery, the system sends the alert to you th…
Read definitionR
R-Multiple
An R-Multiple expresses a trade's outcome in multiples of the risk you took on it, where 1R simply equals the amount you put at risk - the distance f…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsREST API
A REST API is the request-and-response interface a coded strategy uses to talk to a broker over ordinary HTTPS: your program sends a request to a URL…
Read definition Execution QualityRaw Spread
Raw spread is the bid/ask gap passed to you exactly as your broker receives it from its liquidity providers, with no markup added. The broker earns f…
Read definition Signal MechanicsReal Interest Rate
The real interest rate is the policy or bond rate after inflation is subtracted, which is what a holder of that currency actually earns in purchasing…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyReal-Time Feed
A real-time feed is a constantly updating stream of trading signals and prices that shows you what is happening in the market with as little delay as…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowRRPR: Rebalanced Price Range
A rebalanced price range is a band that once held an inefficiency, was traded back through until that inefficiency was gone, and is then used as a co…
Read definition Automation & BotsRebalancing Bot
A rebalancing bot holds a portfolio at fixed target weights, selling whatever has grown past its share and buying whatever has fallen below it. The …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowROB: Reclaimed Order Block
A reclaimed order block is an order block that price broke through and then recovered, closing back on its original side so the zone resumes the role…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRecovery Factor
Recovery factor is a ratio that measures how much profit a strategy produced for each unit of its worst-case pain, calculated by dividing net profit …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowRB: Rejection Block
A rejection block is a price array drawn from the wicks at a swing high or swing low rather than from the candle bodies. On a swing high you mark the…
Read definition Signal MechanicsRSI: Relative Strength Index
The Relative Strength Index is a momentum oscillator that compares the size of recent gains to the size of recent losses and expresses the result as …
Read definition Signal MechanicsRepainting
Repainting is when an indicator or signal changes, moves, or deletes a past signal after the fact as new data arrives, so the chart you look at today…
Read definition Execution QualityRequote
A requote happens when you ask your broker to trade at a specific price, but by the time your request arrives the price has already moved, so instead…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)Return to Order Block & Breaker
Return to order block (RTO) and return to breaker (RTB) are the two versions of the same entry model: you do not trade the break, you wait for price …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRevenge Trading
Revenge trading is entering a trade in order to recover a loss rather than because the setup qualified - the position is chosen by the size of the ho…
Read definition Signal MechanicsRRR: Reward-to-Risk Ratio
The reward-to-risk ratio compares how much you stand to gain on a trade against how much you are putting at risk. You measure the reward as the dista…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRisk Engine
A risk engine is the automated system that watches every account in real time against its rules and acts on a breach by itself - blocking an order, f…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRisk Warning
A risk warning is a clear, honest statement that trading carries the genuine risk of losing money and that past or backtested performance does not gu…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRisk of Ruin
Risk of ruin is the estimated probability that an account is drawn down so far that it can no longer realistically recover, in other words the chance…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsRisk per Trade
Risk per trade is the amount of your account you are willing to lose on a single trade if it goes against you and hits its stop loss. It is most ofte…
Read definition Signal MechanicsRORO: Risk-On / Risk-Off (Risk Sentiment)
Risk-on and risk-off name the two moods global capital swings between: risk-on is when investors are willing to hold higher-yielding, higher-volatili…
Read definition Execution QualityRound Turn
A round turn is one complete trade counted as a single unit, the entry and its matching exit taken together. It is the unit brokers use when they quo…
Read definitionS
SMT Divergence
SMT divergence is a disagreement between two correlated markets at the same moment: one makes a new high or low, the other fails to, and that failure…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSafe-Haven Asset
A safe-haven asset is one investors buy when they are frightened, so it tends to hold or gain value in exactly the periods when riskier assets are be…
Read definition Automation & BotsSafety Order
A safety order is one of the extra buys a DCA bot places below its first entry, each one lowering the position's average price so a smaller bounce is…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsSample Size (Number of Trades)
Sample size is how many trades a performance statistic is based on. When you read a win rate, a return figure, or a track record, the sample size tel…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsScaling Plan
A scaling plan is the published schedule by which a prop firm increases a funded trader's account size, and often the profit split, after a run of pr…
Read definition Automation & BotsScalping Bot
A scalping bot is an automated trading program that opens and closes many trades very quickly, aiming to capture a small gain on each one rather than…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsScoring Rule
A scoring rule is a formula that grades a probabilistic forecast against what actually happened, so a prediction stated as a percentage can be measur…
Read definition Execution QualitySegregated Client Funds
Segregated client funds are trader deposits held in a bank account separate from the broker's own money, so client cash never becomes part of the bro…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationSell / Early Close
Sell, also called early close, lets you exit a binary option before its expiry time in exchange for a partial payout. Instead of waiting for the cont…
Read definition Automation & BotsSemi-Automatic (1-Click) Execution
Semi-automatic, or one-click, execution is a middle ground between trading fully by hand and handing everything over to a bot. When a signal arrives,…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyServer Request Ceiling
A server request ceiling is the maximum number of API calls a venue will accept from one account or key in a given window, and every call your automa…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsSharpe Ratio
The Sharpe Ratio measures how much return a strategy earned for the amount of bumpiness it put you through, so two strategies can be judged on more t…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationSignal Accuracy
Signal accuracy is the historical share of a feed's signals that finished as winners, expressed as a percentage. It is the binary-options counterpart…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyACK: Signal Acknowledgement
Signal acknowledgement is a confirmation message that is sent back to the sender when a signal has been successfully received or acted on, closing th…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Anatomy
Signal anatomy is the complete set of fields that defines a trade signal. At its core it tells you four things: the direction (buy or sell), the entr…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Confidence Score
A signal confidence score is a rating attached to a signal that tells you how strongly the conditions behind it lined up at the moment it fired. Thin…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Direction (Buy / Sell)
Signal direction is the core instruction in every signal: whether to buy or to sell. Buying, also called going long, means you profit if the price ri…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Expiry
Signal expiry is the point in time after which a signal should no longer be acted on, because the market conditions and entry price it was based on h…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Frequency
Signal frequency is how many trade signals a feed produces over a set period, usually counted per day or per week. It tells you how often you can exp…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencySignal Latency
Signal latency is the total amount of time that passes between the moment a trading opportunity is spotted in the market and the moment the resulting…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Notification
A signal notification is the message that actually delivers a signal to you the moment it fires. It can take many forms: a push alert on your phone, …
Read definition Browser Extension TradingSignal Overlay (In-Page)
A signal overlay is a small visual layer that a trading extension draws on top of your broker's web page, showing you the live signal and its details…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSignal Provider
A signal provider is a person, service, or system that publishes ready-to-act trade ideas - usually an entry price, a stop-loss, and a take-profit ta…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencySignal Throttling
Signal throttling means deliberately limiting how many signals or alerts are sent within a given period of time, so a channel is not flooded with too…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)Silver Bullet
The Silver Bullet is a one-hour entry model: inside a fixed 60-minute window you wait for price to displace in one direction, leave a fair value gap …
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowSCOB: Single Candle Order Block
A single candle order block is one candle that both takes liquidity and rejects it: its wick runs the high or low of the candles beside it, and its b…
Read definition Execution QualitySlippage
Slippage is the difference between the price you expected to trade at and the price you actually got when your order filled. Imagine you see EUR/USD …
Read definition Execution QualitySlippage Tolerance (Max Deviation)
Slippage tolerance, often called max deviation, is a setting that tells your broker how far from your requested price an order is still allowed to fi…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)SMC: Smart Money Concepts
Smart Money Concepts, usually shortened to SMC, is a framework that reads price as the footprint of large participants - where orders were left, wher…
Read definition Automation & BotsSocial Trading
Social trading is the umbrella term for platforms where traders can see each other's positions, ideas and results, and choose how much of that to act…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsSortino Ratio
The Sortino ratio measures how much return a strategy earned for each unit of harmful, downside volatility, based on past data. It is a close cousin …
Read definition Signal MechanicsSpot Trading
Spot trading is buying or selling the actual asset for immediate settlement with your own money, so you end up holding the thing itself rather than a…
Read definition Execution QualitySpread
The spread is the gap between the two prices a broker quotes you at any moment: the bid, which is the price you can sell at, and the ask, which is th…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyStale Signal
A stale signal is a trade alert that reached you or got acted on too late, so its entry price and the edge it was built on no longer hold. By the tim…
Read definition Automation & BotsStatistical Arbitrage
Statistical arbitrage trades the relationship between two or more instruments instead of the direction of any one of them: when a historically stable…
Read definition Signal MechanicsSL: Stop Loss
A stop loss is a price you set in advance where your trade will close automatically if the market moves against you. It is your safety net. Instead o…
Read definition Execution QualityStop-Limit Order
A stop-limit order is a two-price order that combines a stop (trigger) price with a limit price, giving you tight control over the worst price you ar…
Read definition Execution QualitySTP: Straight-Through Processing
Straight-through processing is an order-routing model in which your trade passes automatically from your platform to an outside liquidity provider, w…
Read definition Automation & BotsStrategy Provider (Lead Trader)
A strategy provider, also called a lead trader, is the trader whose live account sits at the top of a copy relationship: they trade their own money, …
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsStrategy Tester
The Strategy Tester is MetaTrader's built-in tool for backtesting an Expert Advisor (an automated trading robot) on historical price data before you …
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsSurvivorship Bias
Survivorship bias is the error of measuring only the things that are still around, then treating that filtered sample as if it were the whole populat…
Read definition Execution QualitySwap / Rollover Fee
A swap or rollover fee is the overnight financing charge - or occasionally a small credit - that a broker applies for holding a leveraged position pa…
Read definition Market Structure (ICT)Swing Points
A swing high is a candle whose high is higher than the candle either side of it, and a swing low is a candle whose low is lower than the candle eithe…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsSymbol Mapping
Symbol mapping is the process of translating the name of an instrument from your signal source into the exact name your broker uses for that same thi…
Read definitionT
TGIF Setup
The TGIF setup is a Friday model: after a week that has trended in one direction, price is expected to retrace part of the weekly range back toward i…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTP: Take Profit
A take profit is a price you set in advance where your trade closes automatically to lock in your gains once the market reaches the level you were ai…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTechnical Indicator
A technical indicator is a formula applied to price or volume that outputs a number or a line, so a subjective read of a chart can be turned into a r…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyTelegram Mini App
A Telegram Mini App is a full web application that opens inside the Telegram client itself, so a signal service can show charts, settings and account…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyTelegram Signal Channel
A Telegram signal channel is a channel inside the Telegram messaging app where trading signals are posted as ordinary chat messages, so anyone follow…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsTelegram-to-MT5 Copier
A Telegram-to-MT5 copier is a tool or bridge that watches a Telegram channel for signal messages and automatically places the matching trades in your…
Read definition Signal MechanicsThrifting
Thrifting is what manufacturers do when an input commodity gets expensive: they redesign the product to use less of it per unit, or engineer it out a…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsTick Size & Tick Value
Tick size is the smallest amount an instrument's price is allowed to move, and tick value is what that movement is worth in your account currency for…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTimeframe (Chart Interval)
A timeframe is the amount of price action each candle or bar on a chart represents, so on a 15-minute chart every candle summarises fifteen minutes o…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsTrade Context Busy
Trade Context Busy is a MetaTrader error that happens when your Expert Advisor tries to send a trade while the platform's single trade thread is alre…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsTrade Copier
A trade copier is software that automatically reproduces trades from one account, called the source or master, onto one or more other accounts, calle…
Read definition Automation & BotsTrade Filter
A trade filter is a condition that screens which signals an automated system will actually act on, letting some through and skipping others. Not ever…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTrade Setup
A trade setup is the specific set of market conditions or a pattern that justifies a signal — the "why" behind it. It is the context that has to line…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationTrade Stake
The trade stake is the fixed amount of money you risk on a single binary option. Because binary trading is all-or-nothing, the stake is also exactly …
Read definition Automation & BotsTrading Bot
A trading bot is a piece of software that opens, manages, and closes trades for you automatically, following a fixed set of rules instead of you clic…
Read definition Browser Extension TradingTrading Browser Extension
A trading browser extension is a small piece of software you add to your web browser, like Chrome or Edge, that works on top of your broker's website…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTrading Session
A trading session is one of the regional windows the 24-hour forex market divides into - Asian, London and New York - each defined by the hours its m…
Read definition Automation & BotsTrading Session Filter
A trading session filter is a rule that restricts automated trading to specific hours or market sessions, such as only trading during the London or N…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTrading Signal
A trading signal is a ready-to-use trade suggestion that packages everything you need to act in one place: which market to trade (for example gold or…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsTradingView Alert Webhook
A TradingView alert webhook is a feature that lets an alert on a TradingView chart automatically send a message to a web address the instant it fires…
Read definition Automation & BotsTrailing Stop
A trailing stop is a stop loss that moves automatically in your favour as a trade goes your way, instead of staying fixed at one price. A normal stop…
Read definition Automation & BotsTrend Following
Trend following is a strategy class that buys strength and sells weakness: it assumes a move already underway is more likely to continue than to reve…
Read definition Signal MechanicsTrigger Condition
A trigger condition is the precise rule that must be met before a signal fires. It is the "why now" behind every alert. Instead of a signal appearing…
Read definition Time & Price (ICT)TDO: True Day Open & Close
The true day open is midnight New York time, and the true day close is 4pm New York - so the ICT trading day starts and ends hours away from where yo…
Read definition Entry Models & Setups (ICT)Turtle Soup
Turtle Soup is a fade of a failed breakout: price pushes just past an obvious prior high or low, fails to hold there, and you trade the reversal back…
Read definitionV
VIP vs Free Signals
VIP versus free signals describes the two tiers most signal providers offer, and the only honest difference between them is access and depth of servi…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsVPS for EA
A VPS, short for Virtual Private Server, is a computer that lives in a data centre and runs around the clock, which you rent and control remotely ove…
Read definition PD Arrays & Order FlowVB: Vacuum Block
A vacuum block is the price band a market skipped so fast that almost no trading happened inside it, leaving a hollow the market tends to come back a…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsVerification Phase
The verification phase is the second stage of a two-step prop-firm evaluation - a repeat of the challenge at a lower profit target under the same ris…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsVerified Track Record
A verified track record is a trading history that an independent party has recorded or audited, rather than something a trader simply claims about th…
Read definition Risk & Performance MetricsVolatility
Volatility is how much an instrument's price or a strategy's returns swing up and down over a period. Statistically it is the dispersion of returns, …
Read definitionW
WFO: Walk-Forward Optimization
Walk-forward optimization is a validation method that tunes a strategy on one block of history, tests it on the block immediately after, then rolls b…
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsWebRequest URL Whitelist
A WebRequest URL whitelist is the explicit list of internet addresses that an Expert Advisor running inside MetaTrader 4 or 5 is allowed to contact t…
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyWebSocket Streaming
WebSocket streaming is a way of keeping a constant, open line of communication between your device and a signal service so that new signals and price…
Read definition Automation & BotsWebhook Bot
A webhook bot is software that listens for an incoming HTTP message — a webhook — and turns it into a live broker order. When your charting platform …
Read definition Signal Delivery & LatencyWebhook Delivery
Webhook delivery is a way of sending a trading signal automatically the instant it happens. A webhook is simply an automatic message that one system …
Read definition EA & Platform ConnectorsWebhook Payload
A webhook payload is the structured message a webhook sends to your connector when a signal fires. It is almost always JSON, and it carries the few f…
Read definition Binary-Options AutomationWeekend (OTC) Trading
Weekend OTC trading means trading broker-quoted, over-the-counter instruments on Saturdays and Sundays, when the real exchange-traded markets behind …
Read definitionDefinitions are educational. Trading involves risk of loss and past or backtested results do not guarantee future performance — read our risk warning.
