Accumulation

The market phase in which smart money buys their coins.

Altcoin / Alt
Any cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin.

ATH
All-time High.

Bear Market
A period where the prices are seeing a long term downtrend.

Bear Trap
Designed to trap sellers who think the price will continue to decline.

Bull Market
A market where prices are seeing a continuous uptrend, leading to new highs being
created over a sustained period.

Bull Trap
Where price rises significantly during a bear market, tricking investors into
buying before a larger decline.

Bid/ Ask
A Bid is a buy order, and an Ask is a Sell order. Think of it like an auction,
where a Bid is the price somebody wants to pay for the asset, and an Ask is the
price somebody wants to sell their asset for.

Breakout
A Breakout is a price movement that moves past the upper or lower boundaries of a
range.

Chop
A period where the price is moving sideways with no clear direction, usually
causing traders to change their mind frequently and lose money.

Consolidation
A period where the price is chop in a well-defined region. This is a period of
indecision and generally leads to a volatile movement in either direction.

Correction / Pullback
Also known as a ‘pullback’, a correction is a reversion in price after a rally.

Day Trading
A means of turning a large investment account into a smaller one.

Demand
The desire of investors to buy an asset.

Downtrend
Opposite of uptrend, price here makes lower highs and lower lows.

Distribution
The market phase in which smart money sells their coins.

Dump / Crash / Nuke

Price goes down rapidly.

Exchange (Centralised / CEX)

An online marketplace which allows buying and selling of BTC and Altcoins through a
centralised company who custody your assets. E.g. Coinbase, Binance.

Exchange (Decentralised / DEX)

An online marketplace hosted on a blockchain which allows buying and selling of BTC
and Altcoins in a trustless manner (no middle man). You retain custody of your
assets. E.g. Uniswap, Sushiswap

EV
Expected Value. A term used in probabilistic thinking when estimating potential
returns of a trade.

Fade
To take a position that is counter to the current trend of a coin. The position is
established at the end of an up or down leg.

Fiat
Currencies that have value because they are minted by a central bank. Examples
include USD, GBP, EUR.

Flat / Get Flat

To close out a position and remain neutral.

FOMO- Fear Of Missing Out

That feeling you get when the market pumps and you’re not in a long trade. Learn to
ignore it.

FUD
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. A term used to describe negative news articles or
other information about a coin or project.

Front Running
Taking a position in a coin based on non-public information such as an impending
transaction by another person in the same or related coin.

Halving - BTC Halving

Halving: The process by which Bitcoin mining rewards are reduced by 50% every four
years; this is done to create scarcity and control the total supply (since no more
than 21 million Bitcoins can ever be mined).

HTF
Shorthand for High Time Frame - referring to a candlestick chart on a longer term
basis (Daily, Weekly etc.)

KYC
KYC stands for "know your customer." Many jurisdictions have KYC regulations, which
require verification of new customers when joining an exchange before they can buy
or sell crypto.

Leverage
The extra amount of asset bought or sold, over your capital limit.

E.g. If you want to go long $10000 worth of Bitcoin with an account balance of
$1000, you would have to use leverage of 10x. Leverage opens you up to risk of
liquidation on sudden price moves.

Long / Going Long / Long Trade

A buy order to open a position on perpetual futures. ‘Buy’ and ‘Long’ are often
used interchangeably.
Liquidity
The measure of how much demand and supply (bids and asks) there is on the order
books for a particular coin. A high liquidity coin has many available buyers and
sellers at the same time.

Limit Order
An order will execute at a predefined price, if the market reaches that price.

LTF
Shorthand for Low Time Frame - referring to a candlestick chart on a near term
basis (5min, 30min, 1 hour etc.)

Liquidation
When you are stopped out of your position because the trade went in the opposite
direction and your margins are not sufficient to carry the trade anymore.

Market Cap
Current supply (number of coins available) multiplied by current price of said
coin.

Market Order
An order to buy or sell at the current best price available, executed immediately.

Margin / Initial Margin

The amount of funds required to open a leveraged trade.

E.g. If you want to open a position of $10000 with a leverage of 5X, your margin

requirement would be $2000.

2000 x 5 = $10000

Maintenance Margin
Maintenance margin is the amount of account balance (collateral value) required to
avoid a margin call. If your balance falls below the maintenance margin, your
positions will be liquidated. Note that Margin and Maintenance Margin are not the
exact same number. Always check your specific exchange for the required % of
maintenance margin.

Moon/Mooning
When a coin ‘moons’, that means it rises sharply in value. For example, a crypto
trader could talk about how an altcoin is going "to the moon!"

OHLC
Open, high, low and close. Refers to candlestick charts.

Open Interest
Open Interest (OI) is the total number of derivatives contracts currently open for
a particular asset. OI is calculated by adding the total number of longs and
shorts.

Overbought (OB)
A technical opinion that the market price has risen too steeply and too fast in
relation to underlying fundamental factors.

Oversold (OS)
A technical opinion that the market price has declined too steeply and too fast in
relation to underlying fundamental factors.

P&L / PnL
Profit & Loss. What a trader has made or lost in a given timeframe.

Pump and Dump

A "pump and dump" is a type of market manipulation where a market participant—or
several—work together to inflate the price of an asset so they can sell it when its
value is artificially high.

Pump / Rip
Price goes up rapidly.

RoC
Rate of change. The first derivative of a non-stationary time series. Generally
calculated as: (Current Period / Previous period)-1.

Rekt
The term "rekt" is crypto trader slang for "wrecked." Basically, it means that a
trader lost substantial amounts of money.

Rally
An upward trend leading to an increase in price of the coin.

Range / Ranging
The difference between the high and low price of a coin during a given time period.
Ranging means we are going up and down with no clear trend.

Risk
How much you will lose if your trade fails.

Reward
How much your trade will return if it wins.

RR
Risk reward, shorthand for how much profit you stand to make per unit of risk.

Scalping / Scalp Trade

Taking a position on a very short timeframe (minutes).

Seed phrases
A seed phrase is a sequence of 12 or 24 random words that provide the information
required to recover a lost or damaged cryptocurrency wallet.

Selling off
When a coin is going down and the thought is that it will continue to do so.

Slippage
The difference between estimated fill price for a trade and the amount paid due to
market conditions, poor execution etc.

Swing Trade
Taking a position in the market over a period of days, weeks or months.

Short / Shorting / Short Trade

Profit from the price falling. A sell order to open a position on futures. ‘Sell’
and ‘Short’ are often used interchangeably.

Short Squeeze
Short positions being liquidated in the upwards direction. Forces rapid and
uncontrolled buying activity which leads to dramatic increases in price.

Spread
The difference between the price sellers are willing to sell at (best ask/offer)
and buyers are willing to buy at (best bid). There always exists a spread on
exchanges, the more liquidity an exchange has, the lower the spread will be.

Supply
The amount of something provided for sale

Stablecoin
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset
class such as the U.S. dollar, to keep a stable, steady value.

Stop-Loss
An order that is triggered when price goes above/below a set price. Used to limit
losses when a trade goes against expectation.

Support
A support is an area/line where traders expect the price to hold above or bounce
back up from.

Token
A digital token is a unit of a digital currency, such as a bitcoin. Interchangeable
with ‘coin’.

Time Frame
The time spread of each candlestick in a chart. Common time periods are 12 Hour,
Daily, 2 Day. 1 Week etc.

Trend
The general direction, either upward or downward, in which prices has been moving.

Uptrend
When price is making higher highs and higher lows over a given timeframe.

Volatility
The percentage movement in price of an asset over a specific time period.

Volume
Total number of coins or contracts traded in a particular time period.

Whale
The term "whale" is used to describe a trader who makes sizable bets. Market
participants with the ability to execute very large transactions can potentially
manipulate the market.

UTC
Coordinated Universal Time - the timezone used for crypto charting.

Candlestick abbreviations:
1D = 1 day candle
2D = 2 day candle
1W = 1 week candle
1M = 1 month candle