Concepts
One idea at a time, explained in plain words and shown at work in a real week.
287 concepts, A to Z
CustodyWho actually holds an asset on your behalf, and what happens to your claim if that holder fails?Daily loss limitWhy do some traders stop trading for the day after losing a set amount, and what does that rule protect against?Data qualityHow do we know a market result reflects real trading rather than gaps or bad prints in the data?Data snoopingWhy can a trading rule look brilliant on past data and still be mostly luck?Decision journalWhy should a trader write down the reason for a decision at the moment it is made, not afterwards?DecorrelationWhat happens when two assets that usually move together start moving apart, and how can you see it in one week?DeleveragingWhat does it mean when a market sheds borrowed exposure, and why does that push prices down fast?DeltaHow much does a position's value move for each small step in the underlying price, and what does that tell a trader about exposure?Differences between data sourcesWhy do prices for the same asset rarely match exactly between venues or vendors?DispersionWhat does it mean when two similar assets move in the same direction but by very different amounts?Disposition effectWhy do traders tend to sell winners too early and hold losers too long, and how does that show up in a real week?DivergenceWhen price and an indicator point in opposite directions, what might that be telling us?Dollar volumeWhy do analysts measure trading activity in money moved rather than in coins that changed hands?Dollar-cost averagingWhat happens if you buy the same dollar amount on a fixed schedule, whatever the price is doing?Downside volatilityHow do you measure only the price swings that hurt a long position, ignoring the ones that help it?DrawdownHow far below its last peak is a market, and why does that number change how a fall should be read?Drawdown durationHow long does capital stay below its previous peak, and why does the length of that wait matter?Elliott wave impulseWhat is a five-part Elliott wave impulse, and how would you recognise one forming in a market week?Equal weightingWhat does it mean to give every holding in a portfolio the same share of capital, and how does that change the result?Ether beta to BitcoinHow much do Ether's moves tend to exceed Bitcoin's, and how do you check that claim?EuphoriaHow do recent gains make traders take more risk than the market's history justifies?Event studyHow do traders measure whether prices reacted to a specific dated event, rather than to everything else happening at once?Ex ante and ex postWhat could a trader have known before the week started, and what is only visible after it ended?Exchange outage riskWhy does the chance that a trading venue stops working matter most in the very weeks you need it?Exchange riskWhat happens to your holdings when the venue holding them fails or freezes withdrawals, even while prices look normal?Execution riskWhat is execution risk, and why does the trade you planned rarely match the trade you actually get?Exhaustion moveWhat is an exhaustion move, and how might a trader tell a climactic final push from the start of a longer decline?ExpectancyWhat does a strategy earn on average per trade once wins and losses are combined?Expected shortfallOnce losses pass a threshold, how large were those losses on average, rather than where the threshold sat?Expected valueHow do you compare possible outcomes when each one has a different chance of happening?
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.