Basic Terminologies

Every Basic Terminologies article on The Retail Trader — Indian market analysis, reports and trading education.

• MARKET BASICS: THE ABC OF THE MARKET — Share, index, demat, IPO, circuit — the first 50 terms every new trader needs
• PRICE ACTION: THE LANGUAGE OF THE CANDLE — Candle, wick, gap, breakout, fakeout — what a chart says without any indicator
• MARKET STRUCTURE: LEVELS, ZONES AND SWINGS — Support, resistance, higher high, BOS, supply-demand — the skeleton of the chart
• INDICATORS: TOOLS BUILT ON FORMULAS — Moving average, RSI, MACD, Bollinger, VWAP, Fibonacci — what each one tells you and when it lies
• ORDER FLOW: FROM ORDER TO EXECUTION — Bid-ask, limit vs market, SL-M, slippage, open interest — read this before you press the button
• DERIVATIVES: THE DICTIONARY OF FUTURES & OPTIONS — Lot, expiry, strike, premium, Greeks, IV — every essential F&O term, in plain language
• RISK MANAGEMENT: THE DICTIONARY OF STAYING ALIVE — Stop loss, R-multiple, position size, drawdown, expectancy — the words that protect capital
• TRADING PSYCHOLOGY: THE VOCABULARY OF THE MIND — FOMO, revenge trading, bias, tilt, discipline — the mistakes that have names
• MUTUAL FUNDS: THE LANGUAGE OF SCHEMES — NAV, TER, exit load, folio, SIF — the complete dictionary of the NISM mutual fund workbooks
• DERIVATIVES DESK: THE CONTRACT DICTIONARY — Futures, options, currency, interest rate and commodity — terms from NISM's derivatives workbooks
• ADVISORY & RESEARCH: THE VOCABULARY OF ADVICE — Risk profiling, asset allocation, valuation, ratios — terms for investment advisers and research analysts
• COMPLIANCE: THE WORDS OF THE SEBI RULEBOOK — Depository, clearing, AML, surveillance, social stock exchange — the language of the market's plumbing
• ALTERNATES: THE LEXICON OF AIF, PE AND PMS — Commitment, drawdown, carry, hurdle rate, clawback — the complete vocabulary of private capital
• RETIREMENT & INSURANCE: PLANNING FOR LATER — Pension, annuity, EPF, NPS, life cover, estate planning — the words of the long race
• INVESTOR PROTECTION FUND: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BROKER DEFAULTS — The scope of the IPF, and which losses it does not cover
• LOT SIZE AND CONTRACT VALUE: THE REAL SIZE OF F&O — The difference between a small-looking premium and a large exposure
• NFO: NEW FUND OFFER — THE 10 RUPEE MISCONCEPTION — A new fund's NAV is not cheap, and what to look at in it
• AUM: WHEN A FUND'S SIZE BECOMES A PROBLEM — In which category a big corpus helps and in which it weighs down
• THE CONTRACT NOTE: THE REAL BILL FOR EVERY TRADE — Where brokerage, STT, stamp duty and the other charges show up
• DELISTING: WHEN A STOCK LEAVES THE EXCHANGE ALTOGETHER — Voluntary and compulsory delisting, reverse book building, and the shareholder's options
• GREY MARKET PREMIUM: THE NUMBER WITH NO EXCHANGE BEHIND IT — Where GMP comes from, what it does not tell you, and the cost of trusting it
• THE REVIEW SCHEDULE: DECIDE IN ADVANCE WHEN TO LOOK — The harm of checking your portfolio every day, and the benefit of a fixed cycle
• THE PRE-OPEN SESSION: WHAT HAPPENS BETWEEN 9:00 AND 9:15 — How the opening price is formed, and what you can do in that window
• ROLLOVER COST: THE REAL EXPENSE OF MOVING TO NEXT MONTH — Spread, cost of carry, and what to look at when rolling
• STEP-UP SIP: INVESTING A LITTLE MORE EVERY YEAR — Raising your contribution as income grows, and its long-run effect
• TICK SIZE AND PRICE BAND: THE LADDER PRICE MOVES ON — Minimum price movement, freeze quantity, and the basis of order rules
• ALGO TRADING: WHAT THE RULES SAY FOR RETAIL — API, automation and approval — what is allowed and what is not
• WHAT A TRADE ACTUALLY COSTS YOU — Beyond brokerage — how to work out the full round trip
• COMMODITIES IN A PORTFOLIO: DIVERSIFIER OR DISTRACTION — Behaviour different from equity, and the honest question of allocation
• CURRENCY RISK: AN EXTRA VARIABLE IN FOREIGN INVESTMENT — How does the return on foreign investment change with the movement of rupee?
• DELIVERY PERCENTAGE: HOW MUCH VOLUME WAS ACTUALLY BOUGHT — The difference between traded volume and delivery volume, and its limits
• INDICATOR LAG AND THE SETTINGS TRAP — Every indicator is built from price alone — what that means
• LOCK-IN: What should be the price to lock the money? — Concept of Illiquidity Premium, and when is it applicable?
• NEWS AND PRICE: By the time the news comes, it is often DER. — How is discounting, and why is it normal to fall for good news?
• NOMINATION AND WILL: THE MOST IMPORTANT PAPERWORK FOR THE FAMILY — Transmission process, and a simple list that makes everything easy
• ROUND NUMBERS: Why has the price stopped there? — Mechanism of psychological levels, and their use
• TICKER, ISIN AND NAME: THREE IDENTITIES OF ONE STOCK — The symbol can change, the ISIN does not — and when that difference matters
• AGRI COMMODITIES: DIRECT IMPACT OF SEASON — Relationship of Sowing, harvest and monsoon with house price
• ANCHOR INVESTOR: WHAT HAPPENS A DAY BEFORE THE IPO — Anchor book, lock-in period and its effect on par after listing
• MORE THAN ONE STRATEGY: HOW TO SPLIT MONEY BETWEEN THEM — Relationship between different strategies and basis of allocation
• FUND MANAGER CHANGED: WHAT TO DO — Impact of manager change, and what to look for before redeeming immediately
• INTERNATIONAL FUNDS: INVESTMENT IN FOREIGN MARKETS — Feeder structure, impact of currency, and regulatory limits
• MUHURAT TRADING: ONE HOUR SPECIAL SESSION — What is this session, and what is its practical meaning?
• Why is an order rejected: AAM list of reasons — Meaning of rejection messages, and which one is your fault?
• ORDER BOOK, TRADE BOOK and POSITION BOOK: THREE DIFFERENT SCREENS — What do all three show, and which one is true?
• SYNTHETIC POSITION: A FUTURES-LIKE POSITION FROM OPTIONS — Practical form of put call parity and why it comes in handy
• CLOSING PRICE: THE MOST IMPORTANT NUMBER OF THE DAY — Difference between intraday spike and close, and the relationship of settlement
• DIVERGENCE: DIFFERENT SAYING OF EXPRESSION AND INDICATOR — Regular and hidden divergence, and their timing problem
• Safety first, investment second: why the order matters — Why investing is weak without emergency fund and insurance
• GOLD ETF, DIGITAL GOLD and PHYSICAL GOLD: difference between the three — Calculation of all three according to custody, charges and liquidity
• GUARANTEED RETURN: The one word that sums it all up — Why guarantee is not possible in market linked product, and other red flags
• HEDGE and INSURANCE: The price of both is different — Risk removal, risk transfer, and how much is worth paying for it
• IMPACT COST: THE HIDDEN FEE ON A LARGE ORDER — How to read depth, and how to measure how liquid a stock is
• INDEX REBALANCING: WHEN A STOCK ENTERS OR GOES OUT OF THE INDEX — Mechanism of inclusion and exclusion, and volume of us day
• RATIO SPREAD: WHERE ONE EXTRA LEG CHANGES THE ENTIRE RISK — The math of an unbalanced position and the part where the loss is not capped
• RISKOMETER: THE METER THAT TELLS YOU ONLY ONE THING — What the risk labels mean, and what they do not tell you
• SCREENER: THE ROAD FROM FILTER TO IDEA — What can a screener provide, and why is it wrong to consider its output as research?
• BASE METALS: A THERMOMETER OF INDUSTRIAL DEMAND — What copper, zinc and aluminium tell you, and their cycle
• THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BOOK BUILDING AND FIXED PRICE ISSUES — The price band, the cut-off price and the discovery process
• FUND OF FUNDS: A FUND INSIDE A FUND — The costs of two layers, and when they are justified
• HOW AN INDEX IS BUILT: WHAT FREE FLOAT WEIGHTAGE MEANS — How each company's weight is decided in Nifty and Sensex
• OPENING RANGE: THE FIRST FEW MINUTES OF THE DAY — What the early range tells you, and how it gets misused
• OPPORTUNITY COST: MONEY HERE IS NOT MONEY THERE — The real cost of a stuck position is not just its loss
• MODIFY AN ORDER OR CANCEL AND PLACE A NEW ONE — The link with queue priority, and which is better when
• RIGHTS ENTITLEMENT: THE THING THAT CAN BE SOLD ON ITS OWN — What an RE is, how it arrives in your demat, and its expiry
• STOCHASTIC: WHERE THE CLOSE SETTLED WITHIN ITS RANGE — The oscillator's logic, and the same old lie about overbought
• ASBA AND UPI MANDATE: HOW THE IPO MONEY GETS BLOCKED — The whole path of the application money, and the common reasons a mandate fails
• CALENDAR SPREAD: A TRADE BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT EXPIRIES — The near-month versus far-month difference, and what this position earns from
• ADVISORY FEE MODELS: WHO IS PAID FOR WHAT — Fee only, commission and performance based — the incentives of all three differ
• INFLATION AND THE LONG HORIZON: A SLOW BUT CERTAIN RISK — What happens in thirty years to a plan that relies on fixed income
• IS IT SEBI REGISTERED OR NOT: HOW TO VERIFY IT YOURSELF — What a registration number means, and what it does and does not guarantee
• SEQUENCE RISK: HOW MUCH IT MATTERS WHEN THE LOSS COMES — The same average return, two completely different outcomes
• SLIPPAGE: THE PRICE YOU EXPECTED VERSUS THE PRICE YOU GOT — The small difference that separates a backtest from live results
• STRUCTURED PRODUCTS: THE REAL MATH OF CAPITAL PROTECTION — A combination of debt and derivatives, and its hidden cost
• TRACKING ERROR: WHY AN INDEX FUND LAGS THE INDEX — The difference between tracking error and tracking difference, and their causes
• BASKET ORDER: MANY ORDERS AT ONCE — A practical tool for multi-leg strategies and portfolio entry
• HOLDING CASH IS ALSO A DECISION — The pressure to stay fully invested, and the option value of cash
• THE COMMODITY MARKET'S LONG HOURS: BENEFIT AND DANGER — The effect of the late-night session on both position and behaviour
• ELSS: EQUITY WITH A TAX BENEFIT, AND A LOCK-IN — Each installment has its own lock-in, and the rush of tax season
• MOMENTUM AND EXHAUSTION: TWO DIFFERENT ENDINGS OF A FAST MOVE — When acceleration is strength and when it is fatigue
• OBV: TURNING VOLUME INTO A RUNNING LINE — The logic of On Balance Volume, and its version of divergence
• RETIREMENT CORPUS: HOW MUCH YOU NEED, AND HOW TO WORK IT OUT — A simple framework of today's expenses, inflation and the withdrawal rate
• SECTOR ROTATION: MONEY MOVES FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER — The mechanism of rotation, and what it does and does not tell you
• TRADING SUSPENSION: WHEN A STOCK SIMPLY STOPS TRADING — Why suspensions happen, and what options a shareholder has
• ARBITRAGE FUND: IN EQUITY, YET FREE OF DIRECTION — Returns from the gap between cash and futures, and when that gap shrinks
• READING THE DISCLOSURE: THE SHORTEST AND MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A REPORT — What the disclosures of interest, holding and compensation tell you
• EXERCISE AND ASSIGNMENT: HOW AN OPTION ENDS — The buyer's right, the seller's obligation, and the rule of automatic exercise
• FUND CATEGORIES: WHAT LARGE, MID, SMALL AND FLEXI MEAN — What became fixed about the name after SEBI's categorisation
• INSIDER TRADING: WHAT IT MEANS FOR RETAIL — The scope of unpublished price sensitive information, and how it can reach you
• IPO ALLOTMENT: ON WHAT BASIS A LOT IS GIVEN — Oversubscription, the lottery and the mechanism of the retail category
• SHORT DELIVERY AND AUCTION: WHEN THE SHARES ARE NOT DELIVERED AT ALL — The auction settlement mechanism, and the penalty that falls on the seller, not the buyer
• TAIL RISK: THE EVENT THAT "NEVER HAPPENS" AND THEN HAPPENS — The lie of the normal distribution, and the real frequency of big moves
• UNLISTED SHARES: THE ARITHMETIC OF BUYING BEFORE LISTING — Price discovery, liquidity and lock-in — all three are different here
• ADX: THE INDICATOR THAT TELLS YOU WHETHER THERE IS A TREND — Strength, not direction — and that is its biggest use
• COMMODITY DELIVERY:EXPIRY PAR GENUINE GOODS — Delivery contracts, warehouse receipts, and tender period
• CORPORATE FD: HIGHER INTEREST MEANS HIGHER RISK — How it differs from a bank FD, the role of credit rating, and the default scenario
• HIGHER TIMEFRAME BIAS: THE BIG CHART RULES THE SMALL ONE — Two different trends in the same stock, and how to set priority between them
• IOC and DAY ORDER: How long does the order last? — Meaning of validity, and when does immediate or cancel come in handy?
• LIQUIDITY RISK: EASY TO ENTER, HARD TO EXIT — The risk of selling in small stocks, and why it grows on bad days
• MERGER AND DEMERGER: WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR HOLDING — Swap ratio, record date, and credit of new shares
• PORTFOLIO HEAT: ADDED RISK OF ALL OPEN TRADES — The risk of one trade is small, what is the sum of ten trades?
• PPF: THE LONG HORIZON GOVERNMENT OPTION — Tenure, interest calculation, and the rules for partial withdrawal
• PULLBACK AND REVERSAL: THE SAME FALL, TWO DIFFERENT MEANINGS — A rest inside a trend versus the end of a trend — how to tell them apart
• BALANCED ADVANTAGE: AN AUTOMATIC SWITCH BETWEEN EQUITY AND DEBT — The dynamic asset allocation model, and its limitations
• BUYBACK: WHY A COMPANY BUYS ITS OWN SHARES — The difference between the tender route and the open market route, and the real arithmetic of the acceptance ratio
• ICEBERG ORDER: A BIG ORDER IN SMALL PIECES — How disclosed quantity works and what problem it solves
• MODEL PORTFOLIO: ONE LIST THAT IS THE SAME FOR EVERYONE — The benefit of a model portfolio, and why it is not your portfolio
• NOMINEE: THE ONE FIELD PEOPLE LEAVE BLANK — What nomination does, and why it matters that a nominee is not the owner
• HOW PREMIUM BEHAVES NEAR EXPIRY — The last week of time value, and the fate of an out of the money option
• PARTIAL FILL: AN ORDER HALF FILLED — How the average price is formed, and what to do with an incomplete position
• RISK BUDGET: SPLIT THE RISK, NOT THE MONEY — Thinking of allocation in terms of risk, not capital
• SWP AND STP: WAYS TO WITHDRAW AND SHIFT MONEY — The mechanism of systematic withdrawal and transfer, and which one suits which purpose
• 52-WEEK HIGH / LOW — Highest and lowest price of last one year; The quickest reference to understand trends and extremes.
• ABSOLUTE RETURN — Total percentage gain or loss, regardless of time.
• ABSORPTION — The price does not fall despite continuous selling at a level.
• ACCUMULATION — Long range in which big players are buying quietly.
• ACCUMULATION / DISTRIBUTION LINE — Cousin of OBV, which also gives weight to the close position within the candle.
• ADDITIONAL / AD-HOC MARGIN — The exchange may impose extra margin on a particular scrip, often due to volatility or surveillance.
• ADX / DMI — The strength of the trend is unknown (not the direction).
• ALL-TIME HIGH (ATH) / ALL-TIME LOW (ATL) — Highest and lowest price till date.
• ALPHA — Extra return above benchmark.
• AMO (AFTER MARKET ORDER) — The order placed after the market closes, which goes into the open par queue the next day.
• ANALYSIS PARALYSIS — So much analysis that the trade is not taken.
• ANCHORED VWAP — VWAP which is triggered by a special event, such as result day or swing low.
• ANCHORING — Clinging to an old price, as if that is the true value.
• AROON — It tells the freshness of the trend by measuring how long ago the new high or new low was formed.
• ASK / OFFER — That is the lowest price at which someone is ready to sell right now.
• ASM / GSM — Surveillance frameworks which impose extra margin and trading restrictions on the stocks included in them.
• ATM (AT THE MONEY) — Strike approximately equal to the spot.
• ATR (AVERAGE TRUE RANGE) — The average movement of a candle, in points.
• ATR-BASED SL — Multiple of the stock's own average movement.
• AUCTION SESSION — The same settlement auction, where short delivery is completed.
• AUTO FIT — Adjusting the scale automatically according to visible candles.
• AUTO SQUARE-OFF — If you do not close the intraday position, the broker itself closes it at the cut-off time, and charges are also levied for the same.
• AVERAGE HOLDING PERIOD — How many ders is a trade placed on?
• AVERAGE WIN / AVERAGE LOSS — Aam Jeet and Aam Haar's size.
• AVERAGING — Adding more quantity to the position.
• AVERAGING DOWN — By adding more quantity to the losing position, it is expected that the average will improve.
• AWESOME OSCILLATOR — Do simple moving averages in the form of histogram.
• BACKTESTING — Testing rules on old data.
• BANK NIFTY — Only index of banking stocks.
• BAR CHART (OHLC) — Each period is a vertical bar, with a tick on the left for open and on the right for close.
• BAR REPLAY — To practice history by playing it candle-by-candle in advance, without seeing the results of the future.
• BASIS — Difference between futures price and spot price.
• BASKET ORDER — Prepare several orders and send them in one click, like a multi-leg option strategy.
• BEAR MARKET — Long decline, usually more than 20% from top.
• BEAR PUT SPREAD — Its reverse, for degradation.
• BEARISH CANDLE — Close, below open.
• BEARISH DIVERGENCE — Price is making new high but RSI is lagging behind.
• BEARISH ENGULFING — A large red candle that completely eclipses the green candle above.
• BEGINNER'S LUCK — In the beginning, I got profit without any system, which gives confidence but not lessons.
• BENCHMARK COMPARISON — Comparing your returns with an index like Nifty.
• BETA — How much is it against a stock index?
• BID — That is the highest price at which someone is ready to buy right now.
• BID-ASK IMBALANCE — Excessive quantity of a taraf, which is considered a hint of short-term pressure.
• BID-ASK SPREAD — Difference between the two.
• BLACK SWAN — Very rare, very big and unexpected event.
• BLUE CHIP — A big, old, financially strong company with a good track record throughout the business cycle.
• BODY — The thick part between open and close.
• BOLLINGER BANDS — Bands 2 standard deviations above and below a 20-period moving average.
• BONUS ISSUE — Free extra shares.
• BOOK VALUE — Company's assets minus liabilities, per share.
• BOREDOM TOLERANCE — Doing nothing is also a position.
• BORROWED CAPITAL — Borrowed or loan money.
• BOS (BREAK OF STRUCTURE) — A new swing point is broken in the direction of the trend, meaning the trend is still alive.
• BRACKET ORDER — Entry, target and stop loss — all three together in one place.
• BREAK AND CLOSE VS WICK BREAK — Getting close at level and just getting the wick out are completely different things.
• BREAKDOWN — Same thing bottom taraf: support break.
• BREAKEVEN — The underlying price where the option buyer makes no profit or loss: strike + premium in call, strike - premium in put.
• BREAKEVEN STOP — Stop is placed at the entry price, making the trade risk-free.
• BREAKOUT — Price crossing above an important level, along with volume at aam taur.
• BROKER — SEBI-registered member through whom your order reaches the exchange; In return he charges brokerage.
• BROKERAGE — Broker's charge, which is different for delivery and intraday.
• BSE — Bombay Stock Exchange, whose flagship index is Sensex; This is the oldest exchange in Asia.
• BULK DEAL / BLOCK DEAL — Big deals reported on the exchange, which show that a big player is entering or exiting.
• BULL CALL SPREAD — Buying one call and selling the call above.
• BULL MARKET — The market keeps going up for a long time, where every fall is bought.
• BULLISH CANDLE — Close, above open.
• BULLISH DIVERGENCE — Price is making a new low but RSI is not making a new low.
• BULLISH ENGULFING — A large green candle that completely eclipses the previous red candle.
• BUYBACK — The company has bought back its shares at above market price at the prevailing rate.
• CAGR — Compounded returns by year, which makes comparison of different time periods possible.
• CALENDAR SPREAD — A combination of two options with different expiries, which vary in time decay.
• CALL AUCTION — Special mechanism of price discovery for illiquid stocks and pre-open.
• CALL OPTION (CE) — Profitable option for going up.
• CANDLESTICK — Price summary of a time period: open, high, low, close.
• CANDLESTICK CHART — Same data with par body and wick.
• CAPITAL ALLOCATION — What portion of the total capital will be invested in which strategy or segment?
• CARRY FORWARD — Keeping the position till the next day, for which full overnight margin is required.
• CAS (CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNT STATEMENT) — Monthly statement of NSDL/CDSL which shows all the holdings in one place.
• CASH SEGMENT VS DERIVATIVE SEGMENT — Actual shares are bought in cash, contracts in derivatives.
• CASH SETTLEMENT VS PHYSICAL SETTLEMENT — Index F&O is settled in cash; Holding stock till F&O expiry may deny actual delivery, hence stock positions at expiry should be handled carefully…
• CCI (COMMODITY CHANNEL INDEX) — The deviation of the price from its average is measured; Every asset is used according to its name.
• CHANGE IN OI — How many new contracts were made or ended today?
• CHANNEL — Do price moves between parallel trendlines.
• CHASING — Follow every fast moving stock, without level or plan.
• CHECKLIST — Fix questions to be asked before entry, so that mood can be decided.
• CHOCH (CHANGE OF CHARACTER) — The structure breaks to the upside for the first time, which is the first hint of a possible trend change.
• CHOPPY MARKET — No trend, no clear range; Small pieces which keep eating stop loss.
• CIRCUIT FREEZE — When the stock reaches the upper or lower circuit, the order book of one level becomes completely empty – theoretically the order can be placed, but practically not executed…
• CIRCUIT LIMIT — There is a limit to how much the price can go up or down in a day (2%, 5%, 10% or 20%).
• CLEAN CHART — Keep only those do-three tools whose rules you remember by heart.
• CLIMAX — Very large volume and very large candles, often at the end of the move.
• CLOSE-ONLY RESTRICTION — A position in which only exit is allowed, not new entry.
• CLOSING PRICE — The official close of the day, which is the weighted average of the last 30 minutes on the morning hours, not just the last trade.
• CMF (CHAIKIN MONEY FLOW) — The volume depends on whether the money is coming in or going out.
• CNC (DELIVERY) — Full money is invested, come in share demat, keep it as long as you want.
• COMPARISON / OVERLAY — Superimpose these symbols on a hi chart to see relative performance.
• COMPARISON TRAP — Measuring your results from others' screenshots, without looking at their risk, size or loss.
• COMPOUNDING — Small consistent returns increase over time.
• CONCENTRATION RISK — A large part of the capital being in one place.
• CONFIRMATION — The condition you require before taking a trade, such as the candle closing above the level.
• CONFIRMATION BIAS — Search only those news and charts which accurately reflect your current position.
• CONFLUENCE — Do- Three different things are being said at the same place, hon.
• CONFLUENCE ZONE — Do-three different methods (level, moving average, Fibonacci) to get the same price.
• CONSISTENCY — Every day is a process, no matter what the result.
• CONSOLIDATION — The rest period after the move, where the price stores energy.
• CONSOLIDATION ZONE — The box where the price was very high.
• CONTANGO / BACKWARDATION — Forward expiry is expensive to contango, cheap to backwardation.
• CONTRACT — A standard agreement, in which the quantity and expiry are decided by the exchange – not you.
• CONTRACT CYCLE — Near month, next month, far month — contracts with different expiries of one underlying.
• CONTRACT NOTE — The broker's legal statement at the end of the day: every trade, every charge, net obligation.
• COOLING-OFF PERIOD — Do take a break after consecutive losses, so that the tilt does not increase further.
• CORRECTION — Small, healthy fall in the middle of the uptrend — at 5-10% in the morning.
• CORRELATION — Do positions move together.
• COST OF CARRY — The effect of interest and dividend due to which futures remain slightly different from spot.
• COVER ORDER — Compulsory stop loss with entry, instead of which the broker gives more intraday leverage.
• COVERED CALL — Shares are already held and sold against call.
• CPR (CENTRAL PIVOT RANGE) — Do and lines (TC and BC) with Pivot.
• CRASH — Very large declines in a very short period of time, often accompanied by panic.
• CREDIT RATING — The agency's verdict is whether the company will be able to repay its loan or not.
• CROSSOVER — Do moving averages cross each other, which is considered a signal of trend change.
• CUP AND HANDLE — A round bottom followed by a short pullback — the shape of a breakout after a long consolidation.
• CURVE FITTING / OVER-OPTIMISATION — Optimize it so much that the system works only on old data, never on future data.
• CUTTING WINNERS, HOLDING LOSERS — Book profit early and keep loss for a long time.
• DARK CLOUD COVER — Its reverse: after the green candle a red candle which closes below its bottom.
• DAY ORDER — Valid for that day only; Cancel automatically in the evening.
• DDPI / POA — The authorization by which the shares you sell are automatically withdrawn from the demat, without separate approval every time.
• DEATH CROSS — Its upside: 50 going below 200.
• DEBT-TO-EQUITY — How much debt does the company have compared to its equity?
• DEFAULT SETTINGS — The values that come with the tool (RSI 14, MACD 12-26-9).
• DELIBERATE PRACTICE — Work on one thing every week, like just entry timing or just SL discipline.
• DELIVERY PERCENTAGE — How much of the traded quantity actually went into delivery?
• DELIVERY VS INTRADAY — Shares come in demat upon delivery and you can keep them as long as you want; In intraday the position has to be closed on the same day.
• DELTA — How much will the price of 1 point move par option of the underlying move?
• DEMAND ZONE — The area from where strong buying had come earlier.
• DEMAT ACCOUNT — The account where your shares are kept in electronic form, just like money in a bank account.
• DEMO TO LIVE GAP — The system which is easy to implement in paper trading becomes difficult with live money, because emotion is involved.
• DEPOSITORY — NSDL and CDSL are institutions that keep records of all demat holdings.
• DERIVATIVE — A contract whose value comes from something else.
• DETACHMENT — Not having emotional attachment to the position; This is just an idea which may be right or wrong.
• DII — Domestic institutional investors: mutual fund, insurance company, pension fund.
• DISCLOSED QUANTITY / ICEBERG — Big orders should be shown in small pieces, so that the full size is not known to the market.
• DISTRIBUTION — Long range at the top, where the same big players are selling slowly.
• DIVERGENCE — Price is doing one thing and the indicator is doing something else.
• DIVERSIFICATION — Divided into different stocks and sectors, so that a single coin in one place does not sink the entire account.
• DIVIDEND — That part of the company's profit which is given to the shareholders in cash.
• DIVIDEND YIELD — Year's dividend divided by price, in percentage.
• DOJI — Open and close almost equal.
• DONCHIAN CHANNEL — Highest high and lowest low of the previous N candles.
• DOUBLE BOTTOM — Drop down to the same level twice and get back up; Looks like a W.
• DOUBLE TOP — Do not fall back until you reach the same level; Looks like M.
• DP CHARGES — Per-scrip charge applicable while selling shares through Demat.
• DRAGONFLY DOJI — Long bottom wick, open and close top.
• DRAWDOWN — Decline from peak to current value, in percentage.
• DRAWDOWN RECOVERY — Plan to get out of the bad phase: size less, rules tight, confidence back slowly.
• DYNAMIC SUPPORT / RESISTANCE — In an uptrend, the price often stops firmly at a moving average, as if it is a moving support.
• EDGE — That small statistical advantage that makes money in the long run.
• EDGE TRUST — Trust your system, which comes only when its data is in your own journal.
• EFFORT VS RESULT — Volume (effort) is high and price move (result) is low.
• ELDER RAY (BULL / BEAR POWER) — How much control do buyers and sellers have over their average price?
• EMA (EXPONENTIAL MOVING AVERAGE) — Same average, giving more weight to new data.
• EMERGENCY FUND — A set-aside expense fund keeps you from closing positions at the wrong time.
• ENTRY — The price of taking a position and the reason behind it.
• EPS (EARNINGS PER SHARE) — Net profit divided by total shares.
• EQUAL HIGHS / EQUAL LOWS — Do or more equal levels, there is a higher chance of a cluster of stops behind the coin.
• EQUITY — Owned capital.
• EQUITY CURVE — Graph of the value of your account.
• EUPHORIA — The overconfident phase after frequent jetting, where the size suddenly doubles.
• EVENING STAR — Its opposite, a three-candle formation with a banner at the top.
• EVENT RISK — Extra volatility around scheduled events like results, budget, policy meeting.
• EXCHANGE TRANSACTION CHARGES — Exchange's own charge.
• EXERCISE / ASSIGNMENT — Use of the option and responsibility for the same on the seller.
• EXIT — Exit rule: target, stop, or time-based.
• EXPANSION VS CONTRACTION — The rise and fall of volatility.
• EXPECTANCY — Per trade average expected result.
• EXPECTED MOVE — The total premium of the ATM straddle, which is the market's own estimate of how much it may move till expiry.
• EXPIRY — The day when the contract expires.
• EXPOSURE — Your total market risk, including all positions.
• EXPOSURE MARGIN — An extra buffer above the initial one, which accounts for exchange volatility.
• F&O BAN PERIOD — After exceeding the MWPL limit, the position in our stock can only be reduced, new positions cannot be created.
• FACE VALUE — Nominal book value of share (eg ₹1, ₹2, ₹10).
• FAIR VALUE GAP / IMBALANCE — The price moved so fast that an area was left in between without proper trading.
• FAKEOUT / FALSE BREAKOUT — Level broken, new entry taken, and price immediately went back inside.
• FAR STRIKE LIQUIDITY — The bid-ask spread in door strikes is very small; Vehicle entry looks cheap but exit is expensive.
• FEAR — Fear of loss, due to which even a good setup is missed or the trade is closed early.
• FIBONACCI EXTENSION — Create a target zone by further restricting the same ratios, such as 127% or 161.8%.
• FIBONACCI RETRACEMENT — By drawing a line from a swing low to high, the levels of 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8% and 78.6% are seen, where the chance of stopping the pullback is seen.
• FII / DII DATA — Data published daily shows how much foreign and domestic institutions bought and sold in the cash market.
• FII / FPI — Foreign institutional investors.
• FLAG / PENNANT — After a fast move, a short sideways rest, then continue in the same direction.
• FOMO (FEAR OF MISSING OUT) — Move has passed, still run behind and take entry.
• FORWARD TEST / PAPER TRADING — Following the rules in the live market without investing money.
• FPO — Follow-on Public Offer, when an already listed company again issues new shares.
• FREE FLOAT — Those shares which are available for trading with the public (except promoter and locked holding).
• FREEZE QUANTITY — Maximum allowed quantity in a single order; For more than that, orders have to be sent to order.
• FRESHNESS — An untested zone is often stronger than a zone that has been used many times before.
• FUNDS / LEDGER — Available cash, used margin and withdrawable balance.
• FUTURES CONTRACT — An agreement to buy or sell at a fixed price at a future date.
• GAMBLER'S FALLACY — It is accepted that after four losses a win is 'due'.
• GAMMA — How quickly Delta itself is changing.
• GAP FILL — Price comes back to cover the gap area.
• GAP THROUGH SL — Overnight news par price opens by crossing your SL, and a lot of doors are found from the exit stop.
• GAP UP / GAP DOWN — Today's open is much above or below yesterday's close.
• GOLDEN CROSS — A smaller MA (e.g. 50) crosses above a larger MA (e.g. 200) — a popular long-term bullish signal.
• GRAVESTONE DOJI — Long wick at the top, open and close at the bottom.
• GREED — Try to pull the profit further, until the profit goes back.
• GST and STAMP DUTY — Statutory charges on brokerage and turnover.
• GTT (GOOD TILL TRIGGERED) — Long lived trigger, which sends the order when the condition is met.
• GTT TRIGGER BOOK — Those pending long-term triggers that have not been activated yet.
• GUIDANCE — Management's own estimate of the future.
• HAIRCUT — Discount applied on the value of pledged shares.
• HAMMER — Short body on top, long wick on bottom.
• HANGING MAN — Hammer-like shape, at the top par of an uptrend.
• HARAMI — The smaller candle that rests inside the previous larger candle.
• HARD SL VS MENTAL SL — Hard SL system is used; Mental SL exists only in the mind and often slips away under pressure.
• HEAD AND SHOULDERS — Three peaks where the middle one is the highest, and a neckline is formed below.
• HEDGING — Taking reverse position to reduce the risk of your existing position.
• HEIKIN ASHI — Averaged candles, which make the trend look smooth.
• HIGHER HIGH (HH) / HIGHER LOW (HL) — Every new peak is higher than the previous and every dip is higher than the previous.
• HIGHER TIMEFRAME BIAS — The trend of a larger timeframe, which is used as a background when trading on smaller timeframes.
• HIGHEST OI STRIKE — The strike where most contracts are open.
• HINDSIGHT BIAS — Looking at the left side of the chart, I realized 'this was too obvious'.
• HISTORICAL VOLATILITY — It measures how much it actually moved in the past.
• HOLDING STATEMENT — You have a list of how many times you have shared with whom.
• HOLDINGS — Shares paid in Demat, which are taken on delivery.
• HOPE TRADING — Stop loss crossed, keep position on expectation.
• HTF / LTF — Short form of higher timeframe and lower timeframe.
• ICHIMOKU CLOUD — Japanese tool to show trend, support-resistance and momentum in one hi system.
• ILLIQUID STOCK — A stock with low volume, where entry and exit are difficult.
• IMPACT COST — How much does your order move the price?
• IMPLIED VOLATILITY (IV) — The market's expectation of how much volatility will arise in the future is derived from the option price.
• IMPULSE VS CORRECTION — Impulse is a sharp move in the direction of the trend; Correction slow move against him.
• INCOME EXPECTATION — Expect fixed income every month from trading.
• INDEX — A basket of stocks that forms a single number, so that the mood of the entire market or sector can be seen at a glance.
• INDIA VIX — Volatility index derived from Nifty options, which is called the fear gauge of the market.
• INDICATOR — A calculation based on price, volume or time, which is shown in the form of a line or bar.
• INDICATOR ALERT — Set a notification on a condition so you don't have to sit at the screen.
• INDICATOR STACKING — One thing is to apply some measuring indicators (like RSI + Stochastic + CCI) and consider their agreement as confirmation.
• INFORMATION OVERLOAD — There are so many sources and strategies that no one can be followed properly.
• INITIAL MARGIN — Minimum to be blocked at the time of taking position.
• INSIDE BAR — The entire candle is within the range of the previous candle.
• INTRADAY HIGH / LOW — Today's highest and lowest price ever.
• INTRADAY TRADING — Position opened on the same day and closed on the same day.
• INTRINSIC VALUE — The value of the option that actually exists now.
• INVALIDATION — The point beyond which the meaning of par level ends.
• INVALIDATION LEVEL — That point where your entire idea turns out to be wrong.
• IOC (IMMEDIATE OR CANCEL) — As much as you can get immediately, cancel the rest.
• IPO — Initial Public Offering, when the company sells shares to the public for the first time and is listed on the exchange.
• IRON CONDOR — Create a multi-leg spread based on range-bound expectations.
• ISIN — Each security has a unique 12-character code, which remains the same even when the exchange is changed.
• ITM (IN THE MONEY) — Option has its own intrinsic value.
• IV CRUSH — A sudden drop in IV after a major event (such as a result), causing the option's price to fall even if the direction is correct.
• IV SKEW / SMILE — Differentiation of IV of different strikes.
• KELTNER CHANNEL — Moving average around ATR-based bands.
• KYC — Know Your Customer: Verifying identity through PAN, address and bank proof.
• LARGE CAP / MID CAP / SMALL CAP — Ranking according to market cap.
• LARGEST SINGLE LOSS — Biggest loss till Ab.
• LAST TRADED QUANTITY — How much quantity was traded in the last trade, which shows whether the action was small or big.
• LEADING VS LAGGING — Tries to hint before leading move (and often fails); Confirms after lagging move (and is late).
• LEARNING CURVE — That long phase where knowledge is increasing but results are not visible yet.
• LEDGER BALANCE — Your available cash with the broker.
• LEG — The move from one swing to another.
• LEVEL CLUSTER — Many levels come together in a small range, which forms a thermal barrier.
• LEVERAGE — Facility to take positions larger than your capital.
• LIFESTYLE CREEP — Limiting expenses after a good month, which doubles the pressure of the next bad month.
• LIMIT ORDER — You fix the price.
• LINE CHART — The line connecting only the closing prices.
• LINEAR REGRESSION CHANNEL — Price through a best-fit line and its surrounding standard deviation bands.
• LINEAR VS LOG SCALE — In linear, the move of equal rupee looks equal; Of equal percentage in log.
• LIQUIDITY — How easily you can buy and sell large quantities without changing the price.
• LIQUIDITY GRAB / STOP HUNT — To quickly change the price by selecting one stop.
• LIQUIDITY RISK — Not getting an exit when needed, especially in small stocks.
• LISTING DAY — The day when IPO shares are traded for the first time.
• LONG BUILDUP — Price is also up and OI is also up: new long positions are being banned.
• LONG FUTURES — By buying this money the price will go up.
• LONG / SHORT — Long means buying first and then selling.
• LONG STRADDLE — Buying both a call and put of the same strike, when a big move is expected and the direction is not known.
• LONG STRANGLE — Same idea on different strikes, a little cheaper but bigger move is needed.
• LONG UNWINDING — Price down and OI down: old longs are exiting.
• LOOK-AHEAD BIAS — By mistake, such information was used in the test which was not available to us at that time.
• LOSS AVERSION — The pain of loss is felt more than the joy of profit, due to which it becomes difficult to book loss.
• LOT SIZE — What is the quantity in a contract?
• LOTTERY BIAS — Taking a cheap OTM option because its payoff looks big, no matter how low the probability is.
• LOWER HIGH (LH) / LOWER LOW (LL) — Reverse pattern: Every rally short, every fall deep.
• LTP (LAST TRADED PRICE) — The last price at which a trade actually took place.
• MACD — The difference between two EMAs (Aam Taur par 12 and 26), a 9-period signal line above it.
• MACD HISTOGRAM — MACD line and signal line gap in bars.
• MAGNET LEVEL — The price at which the market repeatedly pulls, such as a round number or heavy-volume level.
• MARGIN — Money that is blocked for taking positions, especially in leveraged products.
• MARGIN AVAILABLE VS MARGIN USED — How much is left and how much is already blocked.
• MARGIN BENEFIT — Lower margin on hedged positions (like spreads) because the risk is lower.
• MARGIN CALL — The margin in the account is reduced, and either deposit money or reduce the position.
• MARGIN PLEDGE — Taking trading margin against your holdings by keeping them in your hands.
• MARK TO MARKET (MTM) — Every day's profit-loss should be settled, not just at expiry.
• MARKDOWN — Decline after distribution.
• MARKET CAPITALISATION — Share price × total shares.
• MARKET DEPTH — List of pending quantity per bid and ask side, usually at top 5 (or 20) levels.
• MARKET ORDER — Whatever best price you are getting now, execute immediately.
• MARKET STRUCTURE — The sequence of these swings, which tells in which mood the market is.
• MARKET-WIDE CIRCUIT BREAKER — If the index falls by 10%, 15% or 20%, the entire market is put on pause for some time.
• MARKUP — The upward trend after accumulation, where the move becomes visible to all.
• MARUBOZU — Almost the entire body, equal to wick na.
• MATCHING ENGINE — The system of exchange that mixes buy and sell orders.
• MAX DAILY LOSS — What is the maximum amount allowed in a day? Screen turns off when limit is hit.
• MAX DRAWDOWN — Biggest decline till Ab.
• MAX PAIN — The strike where the total loss of option buyers on expiry will be highest.
• MAXIMUM CONSECUTIVE LOSSES — How many consecutive losses have we incurred?
• MEASURED MOVE — Find a rough target by measuring the pattern's height ahead of the breakout point.
• MENTOR VS GURU — Mentor teaches the process and points out mistakes; Guru only gives calls.
• MFI (MONEY FLOW INDEX) — Like hi, par, it also includes volume.
• MIS (INTRADAY) — Positions square off on the same day, and the broker provides leverage.
• MITIGATION — Price returns to the same zone from where the move started.
• MOMENTUM — Move speed.
• MONEYNESS — Position of being ITM, ATM or OTM.
• MORNING STAR — Decline, then a short indecision candle, then a strong green candle.
• MOVING THE STOP LOSS — Moving the stop back to prevent the trade from going wrong.
• MTM MARGIN — Additional money is required to cover the day's loss.
• MTM (MARK TO MARKET) — Profit or loss at the current price of your open position, which is updated live.
• MUHURAT TRADING — Special one-hour symbolic session to be held on Diwali.
• MULTI-TIMEFRAME ANALYSIS — Viewing a stock on three timeframes: larger for trend, smaller for entry.
• MULTI-TIMEFRAME INDICATOR — Showing indicators of larger timeframes on smaller charts.
• MWPL (MARKET WIDE POSITION LIMIT) — Limit of total allowed F&O positions in a stock.
• NAKED OPTION SELLING — Selling options without hedge.
• NET PROFIT / BOTTOMLINE — Whatever is left after all expenses and taxes.
• NIFTY 50 — NSE index which contains 50 big companies; The most common benchmark of India's large-cap market.
• NO-TRADE ZONE — The situation where the logical stop is so tight that taking the proper size is not possible.
• NOMINEE — The person to whom the holdings will be transferred in your absence.
• NRML — Overnight position with normal margin for F&O.
• NSE — National Stock Exchange, whose flagship index is Nifty 50 and where the highest volume of F&O operates.
• OBV (ON BALANCE VOLUME) — The volume of up candles is added and that of down candles is subtracted, so that accumulation or distribution is seen.
• OFFSET — Shifting the indicator forward or backward.
• OHLC — Open (start), High (highest), Low (lowest), Close (ant).
• OI CONCENTRATION — Some of the OI is accumulated on strikes, which creates an expected range.
• OPEN INTEREST — How many contracts are open now?
• OPEN INTEREST BUILDUP TABLE — The same chart of combination of Price and OI which is in the Order Flow journal, par strike-wise.
• OPEN INTEREST (OI) — How many contracts are currently open in F&O?
• OPEN POSITION — The position has not been closed yet.
• OPENING PRICE — First traded price of the day.
• OPENING RANGE — The high-low of the first 15-30 minutes of the day, which many intraday systems make reference.
• OPERATING MARGIN — How much profit is being made from the core business, before interest and tax.
• OPPORTUNITY COST — Staying phase in one trade leads to a better trade discount in another.
• OPTIMISATION — Find best-performing settings on past data.
• OPTION — A contract that gives the buyer the right to buy or sell at a fixed price, but is not forced to buy.
• OPTION BUYER — Gives premium.
• OPTION CHAIN — A table showing the price, OI and volume of calls and puts of each strike.
• OPTION SELLER / WRITER — Takes premium and fulfills the obligation.
• ORDER BLOCK — That last candle cluster from where a big move started.
• ORDER BOOK — Live record of all orders pending on exchange.
• ORDER MODIFICATION — Changing the price or quantity of a pending order.
• ORDER REJECTION — Low margin, circuit hit, or wrong trigger price — all are common rejection reasons.
• OSCILLATOR — An indicator that hovers within a range in a separate panel below, such as RSI or stochastic.
• OTM(OUT OF THE MONEY) — No intrinsic value yet; Just the price of expectation.
• OUTSIDE BAR — Both sides of the entire candle are outside the range of the previous candle.
• OVERBOUGHT — RSI above 70.
• OVERCONFIDENCE — After some time, consider yourself bigger than the market.
• OVERLAY — An indicator that forms above a price chart, such as moving averages or Bollinger Bands.
• OVERNIGHT RISK / GAP RISK — News after market closing, which can be opened the next day by crossing the stop loss.
• OVERSOLD — RSI below 30.
• OVERTRADING — Excessive trades, often out of boredom or loss.
• OVERTRADING COST — More trades means more charges.
• P/B RATIO — Price divided by book value.
• P/E RATIO — Price divided by EPS.
• PANIC SELLING — Sell everything recklessly in a downturn, often around the exact bottom.
• PAPER CONFIDENCE VS LIVE CONFIDENCE — Confidence in a backtest and confidence in your live trading journal are two different things.
• PARABOLIC SAR — Dots that shift up and down the price; Used for the idea of ​​trailing stop.
• PARTIAL FILL — Only some part of the order should be executed, the rest should remain pending.
• PATIENCE — Waiting for setup, not forcing the market.
• PAYIN / PAYOUT — Giving money or share to the exchange (payin) and getting it from the exchange (payout).
• PCR (PUT-CALL RATIO) — Put OI divided by call OI.
• PEAK MARGIN — Margin check on random snapshots within the day; Penalty may be imposed for falling short.
• PEAK MARGIN PENALTY — Penalty for margin shortfall on random snapshots within the day.
• PERCENTAGE SL — Fix percent below entry.
• PERIOD / LENGTH — How many candles' data will be used?
• PHYSICAL DELIVERY MARGIN — The margin on stock F&O increases gradually in the expiry week, because the risk of delivery is nearing.
• PIERCING PATTERN — After the red candle, a green candle closes above its bottom.
• PIN BAR — A candle with a long wick which chose a level and got rejected.
• PIVOT POINTS — The central pivot was formed from the high, low and close of the previous day and R1-R3, S1-S3 levels above and below it.
• PLATEAU — The phase where improvement stops.
• PLEDGED SHARES — The promoter has placed his shares against the loan.
• POC (POINT OF CONTROL) — The price where the highest volume was traded; A level like a magnet.
• POINT AND FIGURE — X and O charts, which record only meaningful price moves.
• POSITION BOOK — Current open positions, average price and live P&L.
• POSITION LIMIT — Maximum allowed contracts for a client or broker.
• POSITION SIZE CREEP — Gradually reduce the size until even a normal loss starts appearing big.
• POSITION SIZE VS NEEND — Practical test: If you don't need the night because of the position, then the size is too big for you — no matter what the spreadsheet says.
• POSITION SIZING — How much quantity should be taken, determine the stop loss and allowed risk.
• POSITIONAL / INVESTING — The horizon of a month or year, where structure meets fundamentals.
• PRE-MARKET ROUTINE — Prepare levels and plan before market opening, not after opening.
• PRE-OPEN SESSION — The window from 9:00 to 9:15 AM is where orders are collected and an opening price is discovered.
• PREMIUM — The price of the option, which the buyer pays and the seller receives.
• PREMIUM / DISCOUNT — Futures are moving above spot to premium, below to discount.
• PREVIOUS DAY HIGH / LOW — Yesterday's highs and lows.
• PRICE ALERT — Notification at one level, without placing orders.
• PRICE BAND — Allowed price range within a day.
• PRICE MEMORY — The old area where the big action took place earlier; Market use often re-respects.
• PRICE SCALE / TIME SCALE — You can change the zoom by dragging the axes on the right and bottom of the chart.
• PRICE-TIME PRIORITY — Better price first; The order that comes first comes first at the same price.
• PROCESS VS OUTCOME — A good process sometimes gives loss and a bad process sometimes gives profit.
• PROFIT FACTOR — Total profit divided by total loss.
• PROMOTER HOLDING — How much percentage do the founders have?
• PROTECTIVE PUT — Buying a put to protect a holding, like insurance.
• PULLBACK — A small temporary move against the trend.
• PUT OPTION(PE) — Profitable option to go down.
• QUARTERLY RESULTS — Performance update every three months.
• R-MULTIPLE — The result of each trade will be measured in multiples of your initial risk.
• RALLY — A fast upward move, even if it is a small one.
• RANGE — Candle's high minus low.
• RANGE-BOUND MARKET — Do back and forth between levels.
• RATE OF CHANGE (ROC) — N candles Percentage change from the previous price to today's price.
• RE-ACCUMULATION — The range between the trends which is closed in continuation, not in reversal.
• REACTION STRENGTH — How much did the price go up depending on the level?
• REALISED P&L — The profit or loss that has been realized after closing the position.
• RECENCY BIAS — Giving excessive weight to the last do-three trades.
• RECORD DATE / EX-DATE — It is necessary to hold shares before ex-date if dividend or bonus is desired.
• RECOVERY MATH — After 50% loss, 100% gain is required to get back to break-even.
• RECTANGLE / RANGE — The price keeps moving back and forth between the two levels.
• RENKO — A new brick is made only at a fixed price move, time has no role.
• REPAINTING — Some indicators change their signal after the candle closes.
• RESISTANCE — The price area where sellers become dominant and the upward move stops.
• RETAIL INVESTOR — You and us.
• RETEST — After the breakout, the price returns to the same level and then checks whether it has reached the AB support or not.
• RETRACEMENT — The same pullback, measured as a percentage (e.g. 38% of the move back).
• REVENGE TRADING — Taking a big trade to make money back immediately after a loss.
• REVENUE / TOPLINE — How much did the company sell in total in the year or quarter?
• REVERSAL — The trend should actually go away, not just stop.
• REVIEW ROUTINE — At the end of the week, look at all the trades and find a pattern.
• RHO — Effect of interest rate; Matters the least in retail trading.
• RIGHTS ISSUE — Existing shareholders have the right to buy additional shares at a discount.
• RISING / FALLING THREE METHODS — Three small opposite candles between the big moves, and then the same trend continues.
• RISK-ADJUSTED RETURN — The return should be seen according to the risk taken, because double return from double leverage is not an achievement.
• RISK CAPITAL — That money, even after earning it fully, your life can continue as normal.
• RISK OF RUIN — The probability of losing the entire account, which increases rapidly with over-leverage.
• RISK PER TRADE — What percentage of capital is at risk in a trade?
• RISK-REWARD RATIO (RR) — How much risk are you taking versus how much can you earn?
• ROCE — Total capital (equity + debt) par return.
• ROE (RETURN ON EQUITY) — How much return is the company making on shareholders' money?
• ROLE REVERSAL / FLIP — Broken resistance becomes old support, and broken support becomes resistance.
• ROLLOVER — By removing the position from the old expiry and moving it to the next expiry.
• ROUND NUMBER / PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL — Numbers like 100, 500, 25,000, where orders accumulate naturally.
• ROUND TRIP — Price breaks out and returns to the full range — the cleanest shape of the trap.
• RSI (RELATIVE STRENGTH INDEX) — Oscillator between 0 to 100, default period 14.
• RULES-BASED SYSTEM — Less discretion, more condition – so that the same process runs every day.
• SAMPLE SIZE — After how many trades the conclusion was reached.
• SCALING OUT / PARTIAL BOOKING — Sell some part of the position at target and let the rest float.
• SCALPING — Small minute-by-minute moves, many trades in a day.
• SCARED MONEY — The capital you need (fees, EMI, rent).
• SCREEN EXPERIENCE — That learning which comes only by bathing in the market, not from any course.
• SCREEN TIME LIMIT — The easiest way to trade short: watching the short screen.
• SEBI — Securities and Exchange Board of India, regulator of the market.
• SEBI SCORES — Investor complaint platform, where complaints against the broker can be registered.
• SECTOR — Group of companies doing hi type of business: IT, banking, pharma, auto, metal, energy.
• SECTORAL INDEX — Index of stocks of a hi industry, like Nifty IT, Nifty Auto, Nifty Pharma, Nifty FMCG.
• SENSEX — BSE's 30-company index, the oldest Indian benchmark.
• SERIES — Stock's segment code: EQ is normal rolling settlement, BE and BZ restricted, where intraday is not allowed.
• SETTLEMENT HOLIDAY — The day when the market is open and there is no par settlement; This changes the payout timing.
• SHARE (STOCK) — A small piece of the company's ownership.
• SHARPE RATIO — Return divided by volatility.
• SHOOTING STAR — Reverse hammer: short body at the bottom, long wick at the top.
• SHORT BUILDUP — Price down and OI up: new short positions are banned.
• SHORT COVERING — Price up and OI down: shorts are closing their positions.
• SHORT DELIVERY — Sold on delivery and not paid.
• SHORT FUTURES — Selling without keeping shares will cause the price to fall.
• SHORT SELLING — Selling first, hoping to buy cheaper later.
• SIDEWAYS / RANGE — Neither above nor below; The price has been ghooming inside a close.
• SIGNAL — The condition of the indicator that you want to trigger action, such as crossover or level cross.
• SIGNAL LAG — How much of the move has passed by the time the signal comes?
• SL HUNTING — The accumulation of stops a little ahead of the obvious levels and the price going back up to the vehicle.
• SL-M IN FAST MARKET — In fast move SL-M is executed with par slippage; SL-limit saves the price if it is not executed and the position remains open.
• SL-M (STOP LOSS MARKET) — When triggered, the market order is banned.
• SLIPPAGE — The difference between the price you thought and what you actually got.
• SLIPPAGE COST — The difference between expected price and actual fill, which is hidden in every fast trade.
• SMA (SIMPLE MOVING AVERAGE) — Simple average of closes of last N candles.
• SMOOTHING — Reducing the average noise of the data; This causes lag.
• SOURCE — Indicator at which price should be calculated: close, open, hl2 (average of high-low), ohlc4.
• SPAN + EXPOSURE MARGIN — Margin to be blocked for taking position.
• SPINNING TOP — Small body, both side wicks.
• SPOT PRICE — Current actual price of the underlying.
• SPRING — A false breakdown below the range, which takes stops and moves back inside the range.
• SQUARE OFF — Closing the position: Sell long or buy back short.
• SQUARE-OFF ON SHORTFALL — If the margin is not met, the risk team will automatically close your position, without your consent.
• SQUEEZE — Bands moving very close means very low volatility — often before a big move.
• STANDARD DEVIATION — How much is the price different from its average, statistically.
• STOCHASTIC — It tells in percentage where the close is within the high-low range of the last N candles.
• STOCK EXCHANGE — The platform where the orders of buyer and seller are matched immediately.
• STOCK SPLIT — By adding face value to quantity, so that the per-share price seems small and affordable.
• STOP LOSS — That price where you admit that the idea was wrong and close the trade.
• STOP LOSS (SL) ORDER — By activating at trigger price, a limit order is created, so that the loss is stopped at one point.
• STRIKE PRICE — The fix price at which the option is calculated.
• STRUCTURE-BASED SL — Stop us swinging near low or high where your idea is wrong.
• STT (SECURITIES TRANSACTION TAX) — Government tax, which is levied on trade value.
• SUNK COST FALLACY — Holding a position only because you have already invested a lot of money and time in it.
• SUPERTREND — ATR is a trend-following tool that shows a line above or below the price and keeps flipping.
• SUPERTREND MULTIPLIER — The setting of Supertrend that decides how far away the line should be from the price.
• SUPPLY ZONE — The area from where earlier strong selling had come; The price can be returned to sellers again.
• SUPPORT — That price area where buyers become so active that the decline stops.
• SURVIVOR'S ROUTINE — Common habits of people who last long: small size, written plan, and regular review — no secret indicator.
• SURVIVORSHIP BIAS — Only show stories of losers, because losers don't post.
• SWING HIGH — A peak whose candles on both sides are below it.
• SWING LOW — A bottom whose candles on both sides are above it.
• SWING TRADING — Hold the position for a few days to a few weeks.
• SYSTEM HOPPING — Changing new strategies every week, due to which no system gets a chance to run.
• SYSTEMATIC RISK — The risk of the entire market, which is not reduced by diversification.
• T+1 SETTLEMENT — Equity delivery in India settles on the next working day: buy today, share in demat the next day.
• TARGET — The price where you plan to book profit.
• THEORETICAL VS MARKET PRICE — The difference between the model price and the actual traded price is the largest in illiquid strikes.
• THETA — Time decay: How much of the option buyer's premium is automatically eroding every passing day?
• THREE BLACK CROWS — Three consecutive strong red candles.
• THREE WHITE SOLDIERS — Three consecutive strong green candles, each closing above the peak.
• TICK — The smallest possible change in price; A candle is made up of small movements.
• TICK SIZE — The smallest allowed step of price.
• TICKER / SYMBOL — The short name of the stock which you type on the terminal.
• TIGHT VS WIDE SL — Thin SL means more hits at smaller losses; Wider SL means bigger loss per hit less often.
• TILT — The emotional state after a bad trade, where every next decision gets worse.
• TIME-BASED EXIT — If the trade does not close within the stipulated time, exit — even if the stop is not hit.
• TIME DECAY CURVE — Theta effect intensifies near expiry and does not move in a straight line.
• TIME VALUE / EXTRINSIC VALUE — That part of the premium which is only for the remaining time and volatility.
• TIMEFRAME — How long does a candle last: 1 min, 5 min, 15 min, 1 hour, daily, weekly.
• TIP TRADING / HERD MENTALITY — Taking someone else's call par trade without knowing where his stop is.
• TOP-DOWN ANALYSIS — First index, then sector, then stock, then entry timeframe — coming from top to bottom.
• TOTAL ROUND-TRIP COST — The charge for both entry and exit is mixed.
• TOUCH COUNT — How many times was the level tested?
• TRADE BOOK — Only those orders that were actually executed, with their real fill price.
• TRADE-TO-TRADE (T2T) — A segment where hi settles in every trade delivery; Intraday square-off not possible.
• TRADING ACCOUNT — The account from which you place the order.
• TRADING HOLIDAY — The day when the exchange is closed; The exchange publishes the list every year.
• TRADING HOURS — Equity's normal session runs from 9:15 AM to 3:30 PM (IST).
• TRADING JOURNAL — Record of every trade: reason, entry, exit, mistake.
• TRADING PLAN — Written rule set: What trade will you make, in what size, where to stop, where to exit.
• TRAILING STOP LOSS — When the trade goes in favour, move the stop back and forth, so as to preserve the profit.
• TREND — The overall direction of the price.
• TRENDING MARKET — Clear HH-HL or LH-LL.
• TRENDLINE — A sloping line connecting swing lows (or highs).
• TRIANGLE — Range is gradually shrinking (ascending, descending or symmetrical).
• TRIGGER PRICE — The price where your pending SL order is alive.
• TRIX — The rate of change of the triple-smoothed moving average; Very less noise, more lag.
• TURNOVER — Same activity in value (quantity × price), in rupees.
• TURNOVER RATIO — What was the trading volume compared to Capital?
• TWEEZER TOP / BOTTOM — Do candles whose high (or low) is approximately the same.
• UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE — That stage where the right decision is taken without thinking, because the process has become habitual.
• UNDERLYING — That's the real thing when making a contract: a stock, an index, or a commodity.
• UNREALISED P&L — Current paper profit or loss of open position.
• UNSYSTEMATIC RISK — A company or sector has its own risk, which is reduced by diversification.
• UPTHRUST — Its upside: a false breakout above the range.
• VALUE AREA — The range in which approximately 70% of the day's volume occurred.
• VEGA — How much will the premium change due to change in volatility?
• VOLATILITY — How fast and how much the price rises.
• VOLATILITY STOP — Stopping becomes hot when volatility increases and becomes thin when it decreases, automatically.
• VOLUME — How many shares were actually traded in a period?
• VOLUME CONFIRMATION — Structure broken to the right, without par volume – often ends up being a fakeout.
• VOLUME PROFILE — The distribution of price against volume, which shows at what price the most trades took place.
• VOLUME SPIKE — Many times more volume than average, often on news, breakout or institutional activity.
• VORTEX — Do lines whose crossover is considered a signal of trend change.
• VWAP (VOLUME WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE) — Average price according to daily volume.
• WEDGE — Both trendlines are moving towards each other, the range is becoming smaller.
• WEEKLY VS MONTHLY CONTRACT — Weekly contracts with shorter lives decay faster; Monthly contracts are a bit stable.
• WEIGHTAGE — The share of a stock in an index.
• WHIPSAW — Both sides of the price are hit, in which the stop loss is hit on both sides.
• WHIPSAW SIGNALS — Indicator giving repeated reverse signals in sideways market.
• WICK / SHADOW — The thin line at the top and bottom of the body, which goes high and low.
• WILLIAMS %R — Stochastic-like oscillator, which ranges from 0 to -100.
• WIN RATE — What percentage of trades were profitable?
• XIRR — The true return when money is put in and taken out at different times.
• YOY / QOQ — Year-on-year (from the same quarter of the previous year) and quarter-on-quarter (from the previous quarter) comparison.
• ZIGZAG — A drawing tool that removes small moves and shows only big swings.
• CAS: ALL YOUR INVESTMENTS IN A SINGLE STATEMENT — What the Consolidated Account Statement shows and why it is useful
• CURRENCY FUTURES: A DIRECT CONTRACT ON THE RUPEE — The structure of exchange-traded currency derivatives and their use cases
• HEALTH INSURANCE: THINGS THAT MATTER MORE THAN THE SUM INSURED — Waiting periods, sub-limits, room rent capping and the claim process
• KYC AND RE-KYC: WHY AN ACCOUNT SUDDENLY GETS BLOCKED — The levels of KYC status, and the things that get an account frozen
• THE OVERNIGHT GAP: THE RISK A STOP LOSS CANNOT STOP — News that arrives overnight and the next morning's opening
• RETEST: WHAT A BROKEN LEVEL TELLS YOU WHEN PRICE COMES BACK TO IT — Support turning into resistance, and its practical use
• SOVEREIGN GOLD BOND: THE FORM OF GOLD THAT ALSO PAYS INTEREST — The structure of an SGB, its tenure, and how it differs from physical gold
• STOP HUNT: WHY PRICE GOES EXACTLY WHERE YOUR STOP WAS — The concept of liquidity pools, without any conspiracy
• SUPERTREND: A LINE THAT TELLS YOU ONLY TWO STATES — A trailing level built on ATR, and how it ends up in a ranging market
• TIP CULTURE: THE REAL PRICE OF FREE CALLS — The business model behind free calls, and the position it puts you in
• INTRADAY AUTO SQUARE-OFF: WHEN AND WHY THE BROKER CLOSES YOU OUT — The cutoff time, margin shortfall, and the fill you get at that moment
• BRACKET AND COVER ORDERS: THE WHOLE TRADE IN A SINGLE CLICK — Entry, target and stop loss together — and the conditions that come with them
• CDSL AND NSDL: WHO ACTUALLY HOLDS YOUR SHARES — The relationship between the depository, the DP and your account
• GILT FUNDS: ONLY GOVERNMENT SECURITIES, YET STILL VOLATILE — Credit risk almost zero, duration risk in full
• GROWTH AND IDCW: TWO OPTIONS OF THE SAME FUND — How the dividend option really works — it is not extra money
• THE COMPLETE PLUMBING OF THE INDIAN MARKET: FROM ORDER TO DEMAT — Exchange, clearing, settlement, margin, circuit, corporate action and regulator — in a single journey
• MWPL AND THE F&O BAN: WHY A STOCK GOES INTO BAN — How the Market Wide Position Limit works and what is allowed during a ban
• RECORD DATE AND EX-DATE: ON WHICH DAY DO YOU HAVE TO BUY TO GET THE DIVIDEND — The difference between two dates that matters in every corporate action
• SCALING IN AND OUT: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUILD A POSITION ALL AT ONCE — The logic of entering and exiting in pieces, and what it costs
• BREAKOUT AND FAKEOUT: ONE CANDLE, TWO DIFFERENT OUTCOMES — Why a breakout fails, and how to avoid it
• EXIT LOAD: THE PENALTY FOR LEAVING EARLY — How the load period is calculated, and how it is applied on top of NAV
• GOLD AND SILVER CONTRACTS: THEY LOOK ALIKE BUT ARE NOT — The different character of each, and the difference in contract sizes
• INVIT: INCOME FROM INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS — The listed form of assets like roads, transmission and pipelines
• MAX DAILY LOSS: A RULE FOR CLOSING THE DAY — A number written down in advance that stops a bad day from becoming a bad week
• PIVOT POINTS: TODAY'S LEVELS FROM YESTERDAY'S PRICES — Formula-based support and resistance, and their strengths and weaknesses
• MOVING FROM RANGE TO TREND: THE VOLATILITY CYCLE — Expansion after contraction, and why it keeps repeating
• RUNNING ACCOUNT SETTLEMENT: WHY YOUR MONEY SHOULD NOT SIT WITH THE BROKER — The quarterly settlement rule and its purpose
• SURVIVORSHIP BIAS: WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE NOT ON THE LIST — Why looking only at the names that survived inflates your estimate of returns
• TERM INSURANCE AND INVESTMENT-LINKED PLANS: KEEP THE TWO SEPARATE — The math of pure protection, and what gets hidden inside mixed products
• AMO: AN ORDER PLACED AFTER THE MARKET HAS CLOSED — When an After Market Order executes, and what happens to it at the open
• POSITION SIZE FROM ATR: THE SAME RISK IN EVERY TRADE — A mechanical way to keep risk equal across different stocks
• BONUS, SPLIT AND RIGHTS: THREE VERY DIFFERENT THINGS — Corporate actions that change the share count, and which of them actually creates wealth
• BTST AND STBT: A DEAL BEFORE SETTLEMENT — What the risk is in buying today and selling tomorrow
• COMPANY NEWS: IT REACHES THE EXCHANGE FIRST — Why exchange filings are the primary source, and how to read them
• CRUDE OIL: THE MOST GLOBAL CONTRACT — Which factors move the price, and the character of its volatility
• LIQUID AND OVERNIGHT FUNDS: A PLACE TO PARK MONEY — The difference between the two, the speed of redemption, and their right use
• MARGIN SHORTFALL AND PENALTY: HOLDING A POSITION ON TOO LITTLE MONEY — How intraday margin reporting works and who the penalty falls on
• PRICE ACTION AND TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: THE COMPLETE FRAMEWORK — Structure, trend, levels, candles, volume, indicators — and the limits nobody tells you about
• ANNUITY: PAY ONCE, RECEIVE A PENSION FOR LIFE — The variants of an annuity, and the fact that the decision cannot be reversed
• BACKTEST VS LIVE RECORD: THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING — Curve fitting, look-ahead bias, and the questions to ask with every claim
• CONCENTRATION: HOW BIG CAN ONE POSITION BE — The relationship between conviction and size, and why it needs an upper limit
• DIRECT VS REGULAR PLAN: ONE FUND, TWO DIFFERENT NAVs — Where the distributor commission comes from and what it is charged on
• MARGIN PLEDGE: HOW YOU GET MARGIN AGAINST HOLDINGS — How pledging works, the haircut, and why this leverage raises risk
• THE FOUR MARKET PHASES: IT IS NOT ALWAYS TRENDING — The framework of accumulation, markup, distribution and markdown
• RANGE: WHEN THE PRICE IS GOING NOWHERE — What consolidation is, and why trend tools fail in that phase
• REIT: INVESTING IN PROPERTY WITHOUT BUYING PROPERTY — The structure of rental income, distributions, and the risks
• SPAN AND EXPOSURE MARGIN: WHY MONEY GETS BLOCKED IN F&O — What the two margin components mean and why they keep changing through the day
• VWAP: THE DAY'S AVERAGE PRICE, WEIGHTED BY VOLUME — What volume weighted average price means and its institutional use
• ATR: HOW MUCH A STOCK MOVES IN A DAY — What Average True Range means, and its relationship with the stop loss
• CIRCUIT LIMITS: WHEN THE PRICE CANNOT MOVE ANY FURTHER IN A DAY — How the upper and lower circuit mechanism works, and the truth about a trade stuck in a circuit
• CONTANGO AND BACKWARDATION: FUTURES ABOVE OR BELOW SPOT — Two curve shapes, and their direct effect on rollover
• CREDIT RISK: ANOTHER NAME FOR HIGHER YIELD — A bond's rating, default risk, and where it hides in a portfolio
• GTT ORDER: THE INSTRUCTION THAT STAYS ALIVE FOR MONTHS — How Good Till Triggered works, and its common misconceptions
• MTF: BORROWING FROM YOUR BROKER TO TAKE DELIVERY — How the Margin Trading Facility works, its interest, and its risk
• RISK MANAGEMENT: FROM POSITION SIZE TO DRAWDOWN — Capital, size, stop, correlation and the maths that runs behind every decision
• SHAREHOLDING PATTERN: WHO OWNS THE COMPANY — The share of promoters, institutions and the public, and what a change in it means
• VOLATILITY TARGETING: KEEP THE RISK STEADY, NOT THE POSITION — The logic of changing size according to market volatility
• CORRELATION: TEN STOCKS, YET ONE POSITION — The difference between having different names and having different risks
• EXPENSE RATIO: THE FEES THAT NEVER SHOW UP ON YOUR BILL — How TER is deducted, and what one percent means over a long time
• AUTO SQUARE OFF ON EXPIRY DAY: WHO CLOSES WHAT, AND WHEN — Broker cutoff, exchange settlement, and the stretch in between when control is not yours
• NPS: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TIER 1 AND TIER 2 — The asset allocation choice, the lock-in, and what happens at maturity
• PMS, MUTUAL FUND AND AIF: THREE DIFFERENT STRUCTURES — The differences in ownership, minimum size, tax and transparency
• POA AND DDPI: WHO HAS PERMISSION TO SELL YOUR SHARES — The difference between the old power of attorney and the new DDPI, and why it changed
• SL AND SL-M: TWO DIFFERENT FORMS OF STOP LOSS — Trigger price, limit price, and the situation in which an SL never fills
• TARGET PRICE: WHAT LIES BEHIND THAT NUMBER — Valuation multiple, horizon and assumptions — a target is an estimate, not a promise
• TREND: A DEFINITION WITH NO ROOM FOR OPINION — The sequence of higher highs and higher lows, and when it breaks
• THE LONG WICK: WHAT HAPPENED AT THAT PRICE — What a shadow means, and when to take a rejection seriously
• ASM AND GSM: WHEN THE EXCHANGE TIGHTENS ITS WATCH ON A STOCK — What it means to be on a surveillance list, and how trading changes afterwards
• BLOCK DEAL AND BULK DEAL: LARGE TRADES THAT BECOME PUBLIC — The difference between the two, how they are reported, and what they tell you
• BOLLINGER BANDS: HOW FAR PRICE IS FROM ITS USUAL RANGE — Standard deviation as drawn on a chart, and the real meaning of a band touch
• COMMODITY FUTURES: HOW THEY DIFFER FROM EQUITY — The underlying is a physical thing, not a share — and that changes everything
• DEBT FUNDS: DURATION IS THE BIGGEST RISK — The inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices, and what the category means
• OPTIONS AND FUTURES: THE COMPLETE STRUCTURE, FROM START TO EXPIRY — Contract, premium, Greeks, spreads, margin and settlement — all in one place
• BETA: HOW FAST YOUR PORTFOLIO MOVES COMPARED TO THE INDEX — What beta means, how it is calculated, and its limits
• CNC, MIS AND NRML: THE PRODUCT CODE CHANGES THE WHOLE TRADE — The same order, three different margins, three different outcomes
• SWING HIGH AND SWING LOW: THE REAL REFERENCE POINTS OF A CHART — The smallest unit of structure, and how it defines a trend
• THE THREE AIF CATEGORIES: WHAT EACH ONE DOES — The structure of Category I, II and III and their minimum ticket size
• COMPLAINING TO YOUR BROKER: WHAT THE OFFICIAL ROUTE IS — The right order of grievance steps — broker, exchange, SEBI, and beyond
• EPF: THE PART OF YOUR SALARY THAT PEOPLE FORGET — Employee and employer contributions, interest, and the rules for withdrawal
• INSIDE BAR AND OUTSIDE BAR: A CANDLE INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE PREVIOUS ONE — The simplest visual signal of compression and expansion
• MARKET ORDER VS LIMIT ORDER: WHICH ONE, WHEN — Certainty of fill versus certainty of price — you never get both together
• NAV AND CUT-OFF TIME: AT WHAT PRICE TODAY'S ORDER IS EXECUTED — A fund's price does not change during the day — it is set once in the evening
• PHYSICAL SETTLEMENT: SHARES CHANGE HANDS AT EXPIRY IN STOCK F&O — The difference between cash settlement and delivery settlement, and the decision before expiry
• RESEARCH ANALYST AND INVESTMENT ADVISER: TWO SEPARATE REGISTRATIONS — Who can give general research and who can give you a personalised plan
• RISK OF RUIN: THE CHANCE NOBODY COUNTS — The probability of wiping out the account, from win rate and risk per trade
• T+1 SETTLEMENT: WHEN THE MONEY AND SHARES ACTUALLY BECOME YOURS — The gap between a trade and the transfer of ownership, and what it changes for you

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