Trading terms, explained.

A price at which a seller offers to sell. A market buy commonly trades against an available ask; the displayed quantity and price can change.

An interpretation that favors lower prices. It describes a view, not a completed entry order or a guaranteed outcome.

A price a buyer offers to pay. A market sell commonly trades against an available bid.

The part of a candlestick between its open and close. Body size is the absolute difference between those two prices.

Movement beyond a previously identified boundary. A price-touch rule and a candle-close rule recognize a breakout at different moments.

An interpretation that favors higher prices. A bullish setup still needs the trigger and failure conditions of the chosen method.

Additional price evidence required by a stated method, such as a closing break or a successful retest. It means the condition was met, not that the trade must succeed.

A candle with an equal or nearly equal open and close. The tolerance must be stated; the small body alone does not identify the next direction.

An exponential moving average gives more weight to recent observations. EMA20 means 20 periods, not necessarily 20 days. These articles specify when closing prices are used.

The probability-weighted average outcome under stated assumptions. With gross wins and losses, subtract costs once. A target ratio alone cannot establish expectancy.

A move beyond a boundary that does not sustain itself and returns inside. The boundary and return condition need to be explicit.

Execution of all or part of an order. The fill price can differ from the chart price, the quote, or a stop trigger.

Labels for first and second attempts during a pullback, based on adjacent candle highs or lows. They do not count profitable trades or simply name two correction legs.

A candle contained within the preceding candle’s full range. Our convention allows a shared edge but requires at least one edge to contract.

The price evidence that contradicts the premise of a setup. A protective order is the separate instruction used to attempt an exit.

Exposure larger than the capital supporting it. This magnifies the effect of price movements on that capital, including adverse movements.

An instruction to buy no higher than a specified price or sell no lower. It controls acceptable price but does not guarantee execution.

The ability to transact a quantity without a large price impact. Available quotes, depth, and market conditions matter; a large candle does not prove deep liquidity.

For a simple linear position, long exposure benefits from rising prices and short exposure from falling prices, before costs. The instrument determines how exposure is created.

Collateral required to support exposure. It is different from the position’s notional value and from its maximum possible loss.

An instruction seeking execution against available prices. The last-traded price is not a guaranteed fill.

A reference through intervening swing points in certain reversal patterns. A sloping neckline must be evaluated at the time of the proposed break.

Open, high, low, and close for a specified interval. These four prices do not reveal the complete path or order of movements within that interval.

The quantity held. Translate price distance into money using the instrument’s payoff and unit value, then round quantity to its permitted increment.

A temporary movement against a preceding trend, sometimes including sideways trading. Whether it remains a pullback depends on the structure that follows.

The initial planned money risk used as a fixed comparison unit. In these examples it is price risk before costs; later stop adjustments do not change the denominator.

A price area where advances have met selling responses. It can fail; a later change into support requires evidence.

A return toward a previously tested or broken area. The response on that return matters; a retest is neither guaranteed nor automatically successful.

The difference between a stated reference price and the actual fill. It can be favorable or unfavorable; do not subtract it twice when the fill already reflects it.

The difference between bid and ask. Buying at the ask and selling at an unchanged bid incurs that spread before separate fees.

An order activated by a specified trigger. A stop-market then seeks market execution; a stop-limit uses a price limit and can remain unfilled.

A price area where declines have met buying responses. Previous reactions make it a reference, not a guarantee of another rebound.

A local turning point with price moving away on either side. Later bars are needed to recognize it; it was not necessarily identifiable at its extreme.

The interval represented by each chart candle. It is different from the holding period of a position and from an indicator’s lookback length.

Repeated movement through an overlapping price area with identifiable upper and lower reactions. A smaller trend can exist inside it.

Protection adjusted as favorable movement develops. An automatic distance-based order differs from a method that adjusts behind confirmed swing points.

The event that permits action under a chosen method. A candle-close condition cannot be replaced by a price-touch order without changing the method.

The thin part of a candle between the body and an extreme. Its length shows an excursion beyond the body, not the precise sequence of intraperiod trades.