Trading Terminology

Traders often chat with one another about a variety of topics related to financial markets, giving their perspectives and discussing trading ideas and current moves on the markets. While communicating with each other they often use slang to express their thoughts in a shorter form. Some of the most popular slang is listed below.

Asset Allocation: Dividing instrument funds among markets to achieve diversification or maximum return.

Bearish: A market view that anticipates lower prices.

Bullish: A market view that anticipates higher prices.

Chartist: An individual who studies graphs and charts of historic data to find trends and predict trend reversals.

Counterparty: The other organization or party with whom trading is being transacted.

Day Trader: Speculator who takes positions in instruments which are liquidated prior to the close of the same trading day.

Economic Indicator: A statistics which indicates economic growth rates and trends such as retail sales and employment.

Exotic: A less broadly traded market instrument.

Fast Market: Rapid movement in a market caused by strong interest by buyers and / or sellers.

Fed: The U.S. Federal Reserve. FDIC membership is compulsory for Federal Reserve members.

GDP: Total value of a country’s output, income or expenditure produced within the country’s physical borders.

Liquidity: The ability of a market to accept large transactions.

Resistance Level: A price which is likely to result in a rebound but if broken may result in a significant price movement.

Spread: The difference between the bid and ask price of a market instrument.

Support Levels: When a price depreciates or appreciates to a level where analysis suggests that the price will rebound.

Thin Market: A market in which trading volume is low and in which consequently spread is wide and the liquidity is low.

Volatility: A measure of the amount by which an asset price is expected to fluctuate over a given period.