This trading glossary collects the terms used across Wyvexx, with forex, stock and crypto vocabulary side by side. Each definition is kept short; follow the links for the full diagrams and worked numbers.
- Ask
- The price at which you can buy; the higher of the two prices quoted. See forex basics.
- Base currency
- The first currency in a pair, such as EUR in EUR/USD. The price tells you how much of the second currency one unit of it costs.
- Bid
- The price at which you can sell; the lower of the two quoted prices.
- Block reward
- New coins paid to the miner or validator who adds a block. For Bitcoin it has been 3.125 BTC since April 2024.
- Blockchain
- A shared, append-only ledger made of linked blocks of transactions, copied across many computers. See how crypto works.
- CFD
- Contract for difference: an agreement to exchange the change in an asset's price, without owning the asset. Usually leveraged.
- Clone firm
- A fraudulent business that copies the name and details of a genuine authorised firm. See spotting scams.
- Commission
- A fee charged per trade, per lot or per share, separate from the spread.
- Custody
- Who holds an asset on your behalf. On an exchange, the exchange holds the keys; in self-custody you do.
- Dividend
- A payment of company profits to shareholders, usually in cash.
- Exchange-traded fund (ETF)
- A fund that holds a basket of assets and trades on an exchange like a share.
- Free margin
- The part of your account equity not tied up as collateral, which absorbs losses on open positions.
- Gap
- A jump between one price and the next with no trading in between, often at a market's open after news.
- Halving
- The event, about every four years, when Bitcoin's block reward is cut in half. See Bitcoin explained.
- Index
- A weighted basket of shares that tracks a market or sector, such as the S&P 500 or Nikkei 225.
- Leverage
- Using a deposit to control a larger position. At 30:1, $1 of margin supports $30 of exposure.
- Limit order
- An order to buy or sell only at a set price or better. It controls the price but may not fill.
- Liquidity
- How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price. High liquidity usually means tighter spreads.
- Lot
- A standard unit of trade size. One standard forex lot is 100,000 units of the base currency.
- Maker and taker
- A maker order rests in the order book; a taker order fills immediately. Exchanges often charge them different fees.
- Margin
- Collateral held by a provider while a leveraged position is open. See the margin calculator.
- Margin close-out
- Automatic closing of positions when equity falls too far; for UK and EU retail CFD clients, at 50% of required margin.
- Market order
- An order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price.
- Negative balance protection
- A rule that stops a retail client losing more than the money in their account, required in the UK and EU.
- Nominee account
- An account in which a broker holds shares on behalf of clients, separate from its own assets.
- Order book
- The live list of buy and sell orders waiting at each price on a venue.
- Pip
- The standard unit of price movement in forex: 0.0001 for most pairs and 0.01 for yen pairs. See the pip calculator.
- Private key
- The secret number that authorises spending from a crypto address. Whoever has it controls the coins.
- Proof of work
- A way of agreeing on new blocks in which miners spend computing power to win the right to add one.
- Quote currency
- The second currency in a pair, in which the price is expressed.
- Recovery phrase
- A list of 12 or 24 words from which a wallet's keys can be rebuilt. Never share it.
- Rollover
- The daily moment, 17:00 New York time in forex, when open positions move to the next value date and financing is applied.
- Settlement
- The actual exchange of cash and assets after a trade. US shares settle one business day after the trade.
- Slippage
- The difference between the price you expected and the price your order filled at.
- Spread
- The gap between the bid and the ask; the basic cost of a round trip. See trading fees.
- Stablecoin
- A crypto token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar. See USDT explained.
- Stop-loss
- An order that closes a position once the price reaches a set level, to limit the loss.
- Swap
- The overnight financing charge or credit on a leveraged position held past the daily rollover.
- Volatility
- How much and how quickly a price moves. Higher volatility means wider swings in both directions.
- Yield
- Income from an investment as a percentage of its price, such as a share's dividend yield.