Concepts
One idea at a time, explained in plain words and shown at work in a real week.
287 concepts, A to Z
Calm-market complacencyWhy do risk limits quietly loosen after quiet weeks, and what does that set up next time volatility returns?Calmar ratioHow do we judge whether a market's return is worth the worst fall it has taken?CapitulationWhat does it mean when heavy selling, huge volume and negative funding all appear at once in a market?CarryWhat does it cost, or earn, to simply hold a position over time, separate from any price move?Cash bufferWhy do traders keep part of their capital uninvested, and what does holding it let them survive or do?Cash-and-carry tradeHow do traders pocket the gap between a market's cash price and its derivative price, and what does that gap reveal?Circuit breakerWhat is a circuit breaker, and why does its absence matter when crypto venues never close?Close locationWhere did the week finish inside its own trading range, and what does that position suggest about who won the week?Close versus intraweek extremeWhy can a week's closing price sit far from anywhere the market actually traded during that week?Collateral haircutWhy is posted collateral counted at less than its market value, and how much fall does that gap absorb?CompoundingWhy does a string of weekly gains add up to more than their simple sum?Concentration riskWhat happens when most of a portfolio's risk sits in a single asset or a single idea?Conditional probabilityHow does knowing that something has already happened change the chance you assign to what happens next?Confidence intervalHow do analysts show how unsure they are about a number they have just estimated?Confirmation biasWhy do traders notice the evidence that flatters their existing view, and what does that do to their reading of a week?ConsolidationWhat does it mean when a market stops trending and moves sideways, and how can that be spotted?Contagion in correlationWhy do separate assets start moving together during a sell-off, and what does that tell a holder?Contango and backwardationWhy do futures trade above or below the current price, and what does a perpetual funding rate tell us about that gap?Continuous trading riskWhen a market never closes, how does that change the way price risk builds up for anyone holding a position?Contrarian investingWhat does it mean to take the side that most participants are leaving, and how can a market show that they are exiting?ConvexityWhy do some positions gain more from big market moves than they give up on small ones, and what does that shape tell a risk-taker?CorrectionWhen is a weekly fall just a pause inside an uptrend, and how can you tell it apart from a reversal?Corrective waveWhen a market moves against its main trend, how do traders read that countertrend move, and what does its three-part shape suggest?CorrelationWhen two assets move together hour by hour, what does that number actually tell a trader holding both?Correlation and causationWhen two prices move together, does one actually push the other, or are they both responding to something else?CounterfactualHow do we reason about what a different choice would have produced, when only one outcome actually happened?Counterparty riskWhat happens when the other side of a trade cannot deliver what it promised?Covered callWhat does it mean to sell away the upside of an asset in exchange for steady income, and what does that cost in a strong week?Cross and isolated marginWhen a leveraged position loses money, can it take collateral from the rest of your account, or only from what you posted?Crowded tradeWhat happens when one side of a market fills up with the same bet, and exits become hard to make?
Research notes on real market weeks, not investment advice. Sources: Binance spot BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT 1-hour candles and USD-M perpetual funding rates; weekly figures computed by WSTiger.