Concepts
One idea at a time, explained in plain words and shown at work in a real week.
287 concepts, A to Z
Stop orderWhat is a stop order, and why does it guarantee an execution but not a price?Stop-limit orderWhat is a stop-limit order, and why might it leave you exposed when the market moves fast?Stop-loss distanceHow far below the entry price should a stop be placed so that ordinary noise does not close the trade first?Stress testHow do traders check whether a position could survive an extreme week like one that already happened?Structural breakWhen does a market stop behaving the way it used to, and how can anyone tell a lasting change from a single bad week?Sunk costWhy do traders keep a losing position open because of money already lost, and what does that cost them?SupportWhat is a support level, and what does it tell you when a falling market stops at a price it has bounced from before?Survivorship biasWhen we study only the assets still around today, what is the sample quietly leaving out?Survivorship of a reboundWhen should a strong up day be treated as the start of a reversal, and when is it just a bounce inside a falling trend?Swing high and swing lowHow do traders mark the turning points where a market reversed, and what do those points say about structure?Tail hedgeWhy would a trader pay for protection that usually loses money, and when does that protection actually matter?Tail riskWhat is the chance of a move so large that ordinary weeks never show it, and how do traders see it coming?Thin marketWhy can a moderate order move prices a long way when few participants are trading?Time stopWhy do some traders close a position simply because time passed and the expected move never came?Token pair quotingWhy are both ETH and BTC quoted against the same stablecoin, and what does that let a trader compare?Tracking errorHow far do a portfolio's returns drift from the benchmark it claims to follow?Trading rangeHow far did a market travel between its weekly low and high, and why is that different from the weekly return?Trailing stopHow does a stop-loss protect gains as a price rises, and what happens when the price turns down?Transaction costWhat does it really cost to trade, and why can a profitable backtest turn into a losing strategy once those costs are added?TrendHow do you tell whether a market's moves add up to a real direction, not just one good week?Trend reversalWhat tells traders that a run of gains has ended, rather than merely paused?TrendlineWhat is a trendline, and why do traders using the same chart often draw different ones?TurnoverHow often does a strategy replace its positions, and what does that churn quietly cost over time?Two-sided weekWhat does it mean when a market falls hard and rallies hard in the same week?Upside volatilityWhy do big price swings sometimes feel very different depending on which direction they push a holding?UTC timekeepingWhy are market prices stamped in Coordinated Universal Time, and what does that standard let traders compare?Value at riskWhat loss level is a market unlikely to exceed, and how does one very bad week change that estimate?Variance and standard deviationWhat do variance and standard deviation measure, and why do traders quote the second one?Volatility and leverage togetherWhy does the same leverage multiplier feel survivable one week and wipe out a position the next?Volatility clusteringWhy do wild weeks in markets tend to come in runs, one large move following another?
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.