Glossary, Trade checker

Basics

Base and quote currency: In EURUSD, EUR is the base and USD is the quote. The price is how much quote buys one base.; Buying EURUSD means buying euros and selling dollars. Your profit or loss is counted in the quote currency first.
Leverage: Borrowed buying power, so a small deposit controls a much larger position.; At 1:100, $1,000 of margin controls a $100,000 position. Leverage doesn't change how much you lose at your stop, your lot size does, but it makes it easy to take on far too much size.; Lesson: How much to risk on one trade
Lot: The unit for trade size. One standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency.; A mini lot is 0.1 and a micro lot is 0.01. For gold, one lot is usually 100 ounces. Lot size, together with your stop distance, decides how much money you have at risk.; Lesson: How much to risk on one trade
Margin: The money set aside by your broker to keep a position open.; Margin is a deposit, not a cost. If your losses eat into it too far, the broker can close your positions automatically, which is called a margin call or stop out.
Pip: The standard small unit a currency price moves in, usually the fourth decimal place.; For most pairs a pip is 0.0001, so EURUSD moving from 1.1640 to 1.1650 is 10 pips. Yen pairs use the second decimal place. Gold and indices are usually measured in points or dollars instead.

Charts

Candle: One bar on the chart showing the open, high, low and close for its timeframe.; A green or hollow candle closed higher than it opened, a red or filled one closed lower. The thin lines, called wicks, show how far price reached.
Higher timeframe: The next bigger chart above the one you trade, such as the 1 hour above the 5 minute.; Short moves tend to last longer when the bigger picture points the same way.; Lesson: Reading the trend on more than one timeframe
Resistance: A price area where rising prices have recently stopped and turned down.; Sellers stepped in there before. A buy target just past resistance has to break through it to fill.; Lesson: Support, resistance and where targets fail
Support: A price area where falling prices have recently stopped and turned up.; Buyers stepped in there before, so they may again. Targets on a sell often stall just before support.; Lesson: Support, resistance and where targets fail
Swing high and low: A recent turning point: the highest high or lowest low among the candles around it.; Swings are a simple, rule based way to mark support and resistance without guessing.; Lesson: Support, resistance and where targets fail
Timeframe: How much time each candle on the chart covers, such as 5 minutes or 1 day.; Short timeframes show more noise and need tighter stops. Longer timeframes move more slowly and are more affected by the macro picture.; Lesson: Reading the trend on more than one timeframe
Trend: The general direction price has been moving in.; On this site a trend is up when price sits above a rising 50 period average that is clearly above the 200 period average. Down is the mirror image, and everything else is sideways.; Lesson: Reading the trend on more than one timeframe

Costs

Commission: A fixed fee some brokers charge per lot traded, on top of or instead of the spread.; Commission is usually quoted per lot, for each side of the trade. On small targets, spread and commission together can take a large share of the profit.
Slippage: The difference between the price you expected and the price you got.; Slippage is worst during fast markets, such as big news releases, when stops can fill well beyond their level.; Lesson: Trading around big news
Spread: The gap between the buy price and the sell price. You pay it on every trade.; If EURUSD is 1.16420 to buy and 1.16410 to sell, the spread is 1 pip. Spreads widen around big news and at quiet times of day, which matters most for short trades.
Swap: Interest paid or earned for holding a position overnight.; Swap depends on the interest rate difference between the two currencies. It's small for short trades but adds up on positions held for weeks.

Indicators

ATR: Average true range: the typical size of one candle, including gaps.; If the 5 minute ATR on gold is $4, a $2 stop sits inside normal movement and can be hit by noise alone.; Lesson: Stops that survive normal noise
Moving average (EMA): The average price over a set number of candles, weighted towards recent ones.; The 50 and 200 period averages are widely watched. Price above both suggests an uptrend, below both a downtrend.; Lesson: Moving averages without the mystery
RSI: An indicator from 0 to 100 that measures how fast price has moved recently.; Above 70 is often called overbought and below 30 oversold. That means stretched, not finished. Strong trends can stay stretched for a long time.; Lesson: What RSI does and doesn't tell you

Macro

COT report: A weekly report showing how big traders are positioned in futures markets.; Published by the US CFTC every Friday, using positions from the Tuesday before. It shows whether large speculators are adding to longs or shorts.
Interest rate: The rate a central bank sets for lending, the biggest single driver of currency values.; Money tends to flow towards currencies with higher or rising rates. Traders watch every hint about the next move.; Lesson: Why interest rates move currencies
Real yield: A bond's interest rate after taking inflation out.; Gold pays no interest, so when real yields fall, holding gold costs less and the price is often supported.; Lesson: Why interest rates move currencies
Retail sentiment: How many everyday traders are long or short a market.; When most retail traders are on one side, the trade is crowded. Many traders treat that as a reason for caution.

News

CPI: Consumer price index: the main measure of inflation.; Higher than expected inflation often lifts a currency because markets expect higher interest rates. It tends to weigh on gold for the same reason.; Lesson: Why interest rates move currencies
High impact news: Scheduled data or announcements known to move markets sharply.; Examples are inflation (CPI), jobs reports, interest rate decisions and central bank speeches. Many prop firms restrict trading for a few minutes either side.; Lesson: Trading around big news

Orders

Entry: The price you open the trade at.; On this site, a market entry is locked at the live price the moment you post. A pending entry waits for price to reach your level.
Limit order: A pending order to enter at a better price than now.; A buy limit sits below the current price, a sell limit above it. You're waiting for price to come back to you.
Market order: An order to trade straight away at the current price.; You get filled at whatever the price is when the order reaches the market, which can differ slightly from the price you saw. That difference is slippage.
Stop entry order: A pending order to enter once price breaks through a level.; A buy stop sits above the current price, a sell stop below it. Traders use them to join a move once it gets going.
Stop loss: An order that closes your trade at a set price to cap your loss.; A stop marks the point where your idea is proven wrong. It should sit where the market would have to go to show that, not at a random distance.; Lesson: What a stop loss is really for
Take profit: An order that closes your trade at a set price to bank the profit.; Also called a target. Setting it before you enter stops you from closing winners early out of nerves.; Lesson: Reward to risk, and why win rate isn't everything

Planning

Position size: How many lots you trade, worked out from your account, your risk and your stop distance.; Position size = money at risk divided by the loss per lot at your stop. A wider stop means a smaller position for the same risk.; Lesson: How much to risk on one trade
R: Your result measured in units of what you risked. 1R is the distance from entry to stop.; A trade that hits a 1:3 target makes +3R. A stop out is always −1R. Measuring in R lets you compare trades of different sizes fairly.; Lesson: Reward to risk, and why win rate isn't everything
Reward to risk: What you could make compared with what you could lose on a trade.; A trade risking 10 pips to make 30 has a reward to risk of 1:3. The higher it is, the lower the win rate you need to break even.; Lesson: Reward to risk, and why win rate isn't everything
Risk per trade: The share of your account you lose if the stop is hit.; Most experienced traders keep this at 1% or less. It's the single number that decides whether a losing streak is annoying or fatal.; Lesson: How much to risk on one trade

Price

Gap: A jump in price with no trading in between, often over a weekend or after news.; When price gaps through your stop, the trade closes at the next available price, which can be much worse than the stop itself.; Lesson: Trading around big news
Trading session: The main market hours of Asia, London and New York.; Volume and movement pick up when London opens and again when New York joins. Quiet hours often bring wider spreads and choppier moves.
Volatility: How much and how quickly price moves.; Volatility changes through the day and jumps around news. Higher volatility needs wider stops and smaller positions.; Lesson: Stops that survive normal noise

Prop trading

Challenge or evaluation: The test a prop firm sets before funding you, with a profit target and loss limits.; Break any rule, even once, and the account usually ends. Many traders fail on the rules rather than the trading.; Lesson: Prop firm news rules explained
Consistency rule: A rule capping how much of your total profit can come from one day.; For example, no single day can be more than 30% or 50% of your profit. It stops one lucky trade from passing a challenge.
Daily loss limit: The most a prop account may lose in one day before it breaches.; Firms measure it differently, from the day's starting balance or equity. Check your firm's exact wording.; Lesson: Prop firm news rules explained
Funded account: An account trading the firm's money after passing its evaluation.; Profits are split with the firm. The rules usually stay the same or get stricter.
Max drawdown: The most a prop account may fall in total before it breaches.; Static drawdown is measured from your starting balance. Trailing drawdown follows your highest point, which is much harder to manage.; Lesson: Prop firm news rules explained
Payout: Money a prop firm pays a trader from their share of the profits.; On this site, only payout certificates that have been verified earn the Funded badge.
Prop firm: A company that lets traders trade its money in return for a share of the profits.; Traders usually pay a fee to take an evaluation. Passing it gives access to a funded account with strict rules.; Lesson: Prop firm news rules explained
Restricted news window: Minutes either side of high impact news when a prop firm bans opening or closing trades.; Some firms count news in every currency, not only the ones you trade. A stop or target filling inside the window can count as a breach.; Lesson: Prop firm news rules explained

Results

Drawdown: How far your account has fallen from its highest point.; A 20% drawdown needs a 25% gain just to get back to where you were. A 50% drawdown needs 100%.; Lesson: What a losing streak does to your account
Expectancy: The average result per trade, usually measured in R.; Expectancy = (win rate × average win) − (loss rate × average loss). Positive expectancy is what keeps an account growing over many trades.; Lesson: Reward to risk, and why win rate isn't everything
Losing streak: A run of losing trades in a row. Every strategy has them.; At a 50% win rate, slightly better than even odds say you'll see six losses in a row somewhere in 100 trades. Your risk per trade has to survive that.; Lesson: What a losing streak does to your account
Win rate: The share of trades that end in profit.; Win rate means little on its own. A 35% win rate with 1:3 trades makes money, while a 70% win rate with 1:0.3 trades can lose it.; Lesson: Reward to risk, and why win rate isn't everything

This site

News safe: The share of a trader's ideas not opened or closed within 2 minutes of high impact news.; A high News safe figure means the trader's style would suit firms with strict news rules.