Glossary

Every term used across the curriculum, defined plainly.

Ask: The price at which you can buy an instrument.
Bid: The price at which you can sell an instrument.
Spread: The difference between the bid and the ask price.
Liquidity: The ease with which an instrument can be traded without significant price change.
Volatility: The magnitude of price movement over a period of time.
Pip: A standard incremental price movement in a currency pair.
Lot: A standardised unit of position size.
Margin: The capital required to open and maintain a leveraged position.
Leverage: The facility to control a larger position with less margin. It affects capacity, not risk.
Slippage: The difference between the expected fill price and the actual fill price.
Candlestick: A chart element showing open, high, low and close for a period.
Timeframe: The period each candle or bar represents.
Higher high: A swing high above the previous swing high.
Higher low: A swing low above the previous swing low.
Lower high: A swing high below the previous swing high.
Lower low: A swing low below the previous swing low.
Market structure: The sequence of swing highs and lows describing directional behaviour.
Break of structure: Price closing beyond a defining swing point, changing the structural read.
Range: A condition where price oscillates between boundaries without directional expansion.
Trend: A condition where price makes progressively higher or lower swing points.
Support: A price area where buying interest has previously halted decline.
Resistance: A price area where selling interest has previously halted advance.
Retest: Price returning to a broken level before continuation.
Pullback: A counter-directional move within a prevailing trend.
Supply zone: An area where selling previously overwhelmed buying.
Demand zone: An area where buying previously overwhelmed selling.
Invalidation: The condition that proves a trade thesis wrong.
Momentum: The rate and strength of price movement in one direction.
Confirmation: An additional observable condition supporting a directional read.
Confirmation Stack: The TLHQ sequence of context, structure, location, momentum and confirmation.
Divergence: A disagreement between price direction and a momentum measure.
Market regime: The prevailing behavioural condition of a market: trending or ranging.
Macro driver: A broad economic factor influencing an instrument's direction.
Interest rate: The policy rate set by a central bank, influencing currency demand.
Treasury yield: The return on government debt, often inversely related to Gold.
Inflation: The rate at which prices rise, affecting policy expectations.
Economic release: A scheduled data publication that can change volatility sharply.
Session: A regional trading period such as Asia, London or New York.
XAUUSD: The ticker for Gold priced in US Dollars.
Expectancy: The average expected result per trade given win rate and average win and loss.
Win rate: The proportion of trades that close profitably.
Drawdown: The decline from an equity high to a subsequent lower point.
Risk of ruin: The probability of losing enough capital that trading cannot continue.
Position sizing: Determining trade size from equity, risk per trade and stop distance.
Risk per trade: The predefined amount of capital exposed on a single trade.
Sample size: The number of trades used to evaluate a system.
Rule adherence: The proportion of trades executed exactly per the plan.
FOMO: Entering a trade because of fear of missing a move rather than a defined setup.
Revenge trading: Attempting to recover a loss immediately, usually with increased risk.
Process over outcome: Evaluating execution quality before evaluating profit or loss.
Trading plan: A written specification of instruments, setups, rules, risk and review.
Intelligence layer: An assistive environment supporting context, structure and review — not prediction.
Trader memory: The accumulated record of a trader's decisions and their conditions.

Educational content only. Nothing here is financial advice or a recommendation to trade. Trading involves risk of loss, results vary between individuals, and past performance does not indicate future results. Only capital you can afford to lose should be exposed to market risk.