Trading Glossary

Every trading term used across TradeHQ in one browsable index, grouped by category and linked to where you can practise it with $100,000 virtual cash.

A plain-language trading glossary

TradeHQ's glossary explains trading terms in plain English, with worked examples and questions to help you examine the ideas in practice. There are 49 terms in the index, grouped by the part of trading they belong to. The entries discuss limitations as well as the underlying mechanics.

Definitions are written for people who are learning, not for people who already know. Where a term has a contested or marketing-inflated meaning, the entry says so rather than repeating the sales version.

Browse by category

  • Market Mechanics: Short Squeeze, Liquidation Cascade, Bull Trap, Bear Trap, Whale Manipulation, Stop Loss Hunting, Market Maker, Dark Pool
  • Technical Analysis: Golden Cross, Death Cross, Fibonacci Retracement, RSI Divergence, MACD Histogram, Bollinger Band Squeeze, Support and Resistance, Candlestick Patterns
  • Smart Money Concepts: Order Block, Fair Value Gap (FVG)
  • Chart Patterns: Head and Shoulders, Double Bottom
  • Trading Fundamentals: Limit Order vs Market Order, Leverage Trading, Margin Call, Liquidation Price, Dollar Cost Averaging, Swing Trading, Day Trading, Scalping
  • Trading Psychology: FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), HODL Strategy
  • Crypto Fundamentals: Satoshi Nakamoto
  • DeFi: Impermanent Loss, Yield Farming

Why a glossary matters more in trading than in most subjects

Trading vocabulary is unusually hostile to beginners because the same word often carries a precise technical meaning and a loose marketing meaning at the same time. 'Leverage' is a neutral description of borrowed exposure in a textbook and a sales pitch in an advertisement. 'Support' is a level where buyers previously appeared, not a floor that holds. Reading material without pinning down which meaning is in play is how people end up confident about something they have misunderstood.

Each entry here therefore gives a plain definition first, then a longer expert explanation of the mechanics, then the practical caveat that matters when you try to use the idea. Where a concept is popular but weakly evidenced, the entry says so instead of repeating the folklore.

How to use the glossary while practising

  • Look a term up the first time you meet it rather than guessing from context.
  • After reading an entry, find the same concept on a live chart in the simulator.
  • Use the related-terms links at the bottom of each entry to build a map of the topic.
  • Practise anything you learn with $100,000 in virtual cash — Educational simulation only — not financial advice.

Educational simulation only — not financial advice. TradeHQ is a free educational paper-trading simulator. No real money is traded and no content here is a recommendation.