Definition
Absorption
Heavy opposing orders soaking up aggressive buying or selling without letting price move much further.
OpenGlossary
Trading indicator glossary
Short, practical definitions for the vocabulary traders run into while installing, testing, and comparing tools.
Definitions
Plain-English trading and platform terms
Definition
Acceptance
Market behavior showing price is being sustained or traded comfortably around a new area.
OpenDefinition
Aggressive Order
An order that crosses the spread immediately to demand liquidity at the best available price.
OpenDefinition
Alert Condition
The exact rule or event that triggers an indicator alert.
OpenDefinition
Anchored VWAP
A VWAP calculation that starts from a chosen event, bar, or session point instead of resetting automatically every session.
OpenDefinition
ATR
Average true range, a volatility measure often used for stops and position sizing.
OpenDefinition
Auction Market Theory
A framework that treats markets as auctions searching for value through acceptance and rejection.
OpenDefinition
Backtest
A test of a trading idea using historical market data.
OpenDefinition
Balance Area
A price zone where the market spends time trading back and forth rather than expanding directionally.
OpenDefinition
Balanced Day
A trading session that spends most of its time rotating within a relatively contained value area.
OpenDefinition
Bar Close
Indicator logic or confirmation that only updates after the current bar has fully completed.
OpenDefinition
Basis
The difference between a futures price and the underlying cash or spot reference.
OpenDefinition
Bid-Ask Spread
The difference between the highest bid and lowest ask at a given moment.
OpenDefinition
Breakeven Stop
A stop adjustment that moves risk close to the entry price after a trade has moved favorably.
OpenDefinition
Breakout
A move through a prior range, level, or structural boundary that suggests expansion.
OpenDefinition
Candlestick Chart
A chart style that shows open, high, low, and close for each bar using a candle body and wicks.
OpenDefinition
Chart Template
A saved set of chart settings such as colors, indicators, data series, and display preferences.
OpenDefinition
Closing Auction
The final price-discovery and order-matching process into the end of the session.
OpenDefinition
Commission
A fee charged by a broker or platform for executing trades.
OpenDefinition
Confirmation Bar
A later bar that validates a pattern, swing, or setup condition.
OpenDefinition
Confluence
The overlap of multiple useful factors at the same price area or decision point.
OpenDefinition
Continuous Contract
A stitched futures symbol that blends contract months together into one historical chart.
OpenDefinition
Continuous Session
A chart or session definition that treats trading as one long stream rather than separating regular and overnight activity.
OpenDefinition
Contract Roll
The process of moving analysis or trading from one futures expiration month to the next active contract.
OpenDefinition
Contract Specifications
The exchange-defined details of a futures product such as tick size, tick value, trading hours, and expiration cycle.
OpenDefinition
Cumulative Delta
A running total of delta used to show the ongoing balance of aggressive buying and selling.
OpenDefinition
Data Feed
The market-data connection that supplies prices, volume, and sometimes depth data to a platform.
OpenDefinition
Delta
The difference between buying volume executed at the ask and selling volume executed at the bid.
OpenDefinition
Delta Divergence
A mismatch between price movement and delta behavior that can hint at weakening follow-through or hidden opposition.
OpenDefinition
Deviation Bands
Bands plotted around a reference line, often VWAP, to show how stretched price is relative to recent behavior.
OpenDefinition
Donchian Channel
A channel built from the highest high and lowest low over a chosen lookback period.
OpenDefinition
Drawdown
The decline from a peak in account equity, balance, or strategy performance.
OpenDefinition
EasyLanguage
TradeStation's scripting language for custom indicators, strategies, and chart studies.
OpenDefinition
EMA
Exponential moving average, a moving average that gives more weight to recent prices.
OpenDefinition
Excess
A profile-style rejection signature at an extreme, often showing that the market quickly rejected further trade there.
OpenDefinition
Expectancy
The average amount a strategy is expected to make or lose per trade over time.
OpenDefinition
Extended Hours
Trading activity that happens outside the main regular session.
OpenDefinition
Failed Breakdown
A move below support or a prior low that quickly loses acceptance and reverses back up.
OpenDefinition
Fair Value Gap
A three-candle imbalance-style gap that some traders use to mark price areas left behind during fast directional movement.
OpenDefinition
False Breakout
A breakout attempt that fails to hold beyond a level and returns back into the prior range.
OpenDefinition
Fibonacci Retracement
A set of percentage levels used to frame pullbacks between swing points.
OpenDefinition
Footprint Chart
A chart style that shows bid-ask volume or traded volume inside each bar.
OpenDefinition
Front Month
The futures contract month with the most active trading and nearest practical liquidity focus.
OpenDefinition
Gap
A price difference between one period's close and the next period's open or initial trade.
OpenDefinition
Globex
CME's electronic trading session, often used as shorthand for the overnight futures market.
OpenDefinition
Heat Map
A visual display that uses color intensity to show concentration or strength of activity.
OpenDefinition
High Volume Node
A price area where notably heavy trading occurred, often treated as a zone of acceptance.
OpenDefinition
Higher Time Frame Levels
Daily, weekly, monthly, or session levels projected onto lower-time-frame charts.
OpenDefinition
Iceberg Order
A large order that exposes only a portion of its size to the market at one time.
OpenDefinition
Imbalance
A meaningful difference between buying and selling activity at a price or across a bar.
OpenDefinition
Implied Volatility
The market's forward-looking volatility estimate as embedded in options pricing.
OpenDefinition
Initial Balance
The range formed during the first hour of trading, often used in futures and market-profile style workflows.
OpenDefinition
Initiative Buying
Aggressive buying that pushes price into new territory instead of fading lower prices.
OpenDefinition
Initiative Selling
Aggressive selling that pushes price into new territory instead of fading higher prices.
OpenDefinition
Inside Bar
A bar whose high is lower than the previous bar's high and whose low is higher than the previous bar's low.
OpenDefinition
Intrabar
Behavior that happens while the bar is still forming rather than only at the completed bar close.
OpenDefinition
Late-Session Liquidation
Position unwinding near the end of the session that can create abrupt directional movement without starting a true new trend.
OpenDefinition
Limit Order
An order that sets the worst acceptable price for entry or exit.
OpenDefinition
Liquidity
How easily a market can absorb orders without causing large price changes.
OpenDefinition
Liquidity Grab
A move into an obvious pool of resting orders, often around prior highs, lows, or breakout points.
OpenDefinition
Liquidity Vacuum
A zone where relatively little resting interest appears to be available, allowing price to move quickly through it.
OpenDefinition
Lookback Period
The number of bars or units of history an indicator uses for its calculations.
OpenDefinition
Low Volume Node
A thinly traded price area that often reflects fast movement or weak acceptance.
OpenDefinition
Market Order
An order that prioritizes immediate execution over a guaranteed price.
OpenDefinition
Market Regime
The broader behavioral environment of the market, such as trending, rotational, quiet, or highly volatile.
OpenDefinition
Market Replay
A simulation mode that replays historical market activity so traders can test behavior as it unfolded.
OpenDefinition
Market Structure
The sequence of swings, highs, lows, and trend transitions that traders use to organize a chart.
OpenDefinition
Maximum Adverse Excursion
The largest unrealized loss a trade experiences before it is closed.
OpenDefinition
Maximum Favorable Excursion
The largest unrealized gain a trade experiences before it is closed.
OpenDefinition
Mean Reversion
A trading idea based on price moving back toward a central reference after stretching away from it.
OpenDefinition
Micro Contract
A smaller-sized futures contract designed to give traders finer position-sizing granularity.
OpenDefinition
Momentum
The pace and follow-through of price movement, often used to judge whether a move is strengthening, stalling, or getting stretched.
OpenDefinition
Moving Average
A smoothed average of price values used to show trend direction or general market bias.
OpenDefinition
MQL4
The MetaTrader 4 programming language used to build custom indicators and expert advisors.
OpenDefinition
MQL5
The MetaTrader 5 programming language for indicators, scripts, and automated systems.
OpenDefinition
MultiCharts PowerLanguage
The EasyLanguage-style scripting language used by MultiCharts for custom studies and signals.
OpenDefinition
NinjaScript
NinjaTrader's scripting framework for custom indicators, strategies, and chart tools.
OpenDefinition
NinjaTrader Import
The platform process used to install NinjaScript ZIP packages into NinjaTrader.
OpenDefinition
Opening Auction
The price-discovery process that happens as the market establishes early trade after the open.
OpenDefinition
Opening Drive
A strong directional move that begins early in the session with little immediate pullback.
OpenDefinition
Opening Print
The first traded price or first cluster of prices at the start of the session.
OpenDefinition
Opening Range
The high and low formed during a defined early-session window.
OpenDefinition
Opening Reversal
A setup where an early directional push fails and price rotates back through the opening area.
OpenDefinition
Optimization
The process of adjusting parameters to improve a strategy or indicator's historical performance.
OpenDefinition
Order Flow
The study of how aggressive buyers and sellers are interacting in real time.
OpenDefinition
Outside Bar
A bar whose high is higher than the previous bar's high and whose low is lower than the previous bar's low.
OpenDefinition
Overfitting
When a strategy or indicator is tuned too closely to historical data and loses robustness.
OpenDefinition
Overnight High
The highest traded price during the overnight or Globex session before the main cash open.
OpenDefinition
Overnight Low
The lowest traded price during the overnight or Globex session before the main cash open.
OpenDefinition
Overnight Range
The high-low span created during the overnight session before regular trading hours begin.
OpenDefinition
Participation
The amount and quality of market involvement behind a move, often judged through volume, pace, or order-flow context.
OpenDefinition
Passive Order
An order resting in the book that waits to be hit rather than crossing the spread immediately.
OpenDefinition
Pine Script
TradingView's scripting language for custom indicators and strategies.
OpenDefinition
Pivot Points
Calculated support and resistance levels derived from prior-session price data.
OpenDefinition
Point of Control
The price level that saw the most activity in a profile-based session view.
OpenDefinition
Poor High
A session high that looks unfinished because it lacks a clean rejection or excess signature.
OpenDefinition
Poor Low
A session low that looks unfinished because it lacks a clean rejection or excess signature.
OpenDefinition
Position Sizing
The process of deciding how many shares, contracts, or units to trade based on risk and account size.
OpenDefinition
Pullback
A temporary move against the prevailing direction of a market swing or trend.
OpenDefinition
Pullback Depth
How far price retraces against the trend before attempting continuation again.
OpenDefinition
Range Bar
A price-based bar that forms when price moves a defined amount, regardless of elapsed time.
OpenDefinition
Range Expansion
A clear increase in price movement after a period of tighter or more balanced trade.
OpenDefinition
Realized Volatility
A measurement of how much price has actually moved over a historical lookback period.
OpenDefinition
Regular Trading Hours
The primary daytime trading session defined by an exchange or charting template.
OpenDefinition
Rejection
Price behavior showing the market is unwilling to sustain trade at a certain area.
OpenDefinition
Relative Strength
A way of comparing how strongly one market or instrument is behaving versus another reference.
OpenDefinition
Renko Bars
Price-based bars that form after a defined move rather than after a fixed amount of time.
OpenDefinition
Repainting
When an indicator changes its signals or values after the bar or historical context has already passed.
OpenDefinition
Resistance Zone
A price area where sellers may become more active than usual.
OpenDefinition
Responsive Buying
Buying that appears as price reaches lower-value or discounted territory rather than from aggressive price discovery higher.
OpenDefinition
Responsive Selling
Selling that appears as price reaches higher-value or premium territory rather than discovering value lower.
OpenDefinition
Retest
Price returning to a prior breakout, support, resistance, or structure level after the first move away.
OpenDefinition
Risk-Reward Ratio
The relationship between what a trader stands to lose and what they stand to gain on a trade.
OpenDefinition
Roll Gap
A price discontinuity that appears when analysis moves from one futures contract month to the next.
OpenDefinition
Rotation
Back-and-forth price movement within a range or around a reference area.
OpenDefinition
Rotation Factor
A way of tracking the balance of up-closes and down-closes or directional persistence within a session.
OpenDefinition
Scale In
Building a position in smaller pieces rather than entering the full size at once.
OpenDefinition
Scaling Out
Reducing part of a position before the full trade is closed.
OpenDefinition
Session Bias
A directional or rotational expectation carried into the current trading session.
OpenDefinition
Session Close
The final traded price or closing print for a session.
OpenDefinition
Session Context
The combination of timing, structure, location, and participation that gives meaning to a setup inside a trading session.
OpenDefinition
Session Extension
A move beyond a previously established intraday range or reference area.
OpenDefinition
Session High
The highest price traded during the current or referenced trading session.
OpenDefinition
Session Low
The lowest price traded during the current or referenced trading session.
OpenDefinition
Session Midpoint
The midpoint between a session high and session low or between opening-range boundaries.
OpenDefinition
Session Open
The first traded price or opening print for a session.
OpenDefinition
Session Overlap
A period when two major market regions are active at the same time, often increasing participation and volatility.
OpenDefinition
Session Template
The schedule a charting platform uses to define which market hours belong to a trading session.
OpenDefinition
Session VWAP
A VWAP calculation that resets at the start of each trading session.
OpenDefinition
Settlement Price
The exchange-determined closing reference price for a futures contract session.
OpenDefinition
Signal-to-Noise Ratio
A practical way of thinking about how much useful information an indicator provides relative to distraction.
OpenDefinition
Single Prints
Thin profile areas that show little overlap and suggest fast directional trade through a price zone.
OpenDefinition
Slippage
The difference between expected execution price and actual execution price.
OpenDefinition
SMA
Simple moving average, the unweighted average of price over a chosen number of bars.
OpenDefinition
Source Code
The readable script or program logic behind an indicator or tool.
OpenDefinition
Stacked Imbalance
Multiple nearby imbalance readings in the same direction, often used as a sign of directional pressure.
OpenDefinition
Standard Contract
The full-size version of a futures contract, typically with larger tick value and notional exposure than the micro version.
OpenDefinition
Stop Order
An order that activates when price reaches a chosen trigger level.
OpenDefinition
Stop Run
A fast move through a visible level that appears to trigger clustered stop orders before reversing or continuing.
OpenDefinition
Stop-Limit Order
An order that activates at a stop price but then behaves like a limit order.
OpenDefinition
Support and Resistance
Price areas where traders expect buying or selling pressure to matter more than usual.
OpenDefinition
Support Zone
A price area where buyers may become more active than usual.
OpenDefinition
Swing High
A local high surrounded by lower highs on both sides, often used in structure and retracement analysis.
OpenDefinition
Swing Low
A local low surrounded by higher lows on both sides, often used in trend and retracement workflows.
OpenDefinition
Term Structure
The relationship between prices of the same market across different futures expiration months.
OpenDefinition
Tick Chart
A chart where bars complete after a defined number of trades or ticks.
OpenDefinition
Tick Replay
A platform feature that reconstructs intrabar activity from historical tick data for more detailed indicator processing.
OpenDefinition
Tick Value
The dollar value of one minimum price increment for a contract.
OpenDefinition
Time in Trade
How long a position is typically held from entry to exit.
OpenDefinition
Time-Based Chart
A chart where bars complete after a fixed amount of time, such as one minute or one hour.
OpenDefinition
Trailing Stop
A stop level that moves in the direction of a profitable trade to help protect open gains.
OpenDefinition
Trapped Trader
A trader caught on the wrong side of a move after a breakout, breakdown, or reversal fails.
OpenDefinition
Trend Day
A session where price sustains directional movement with limited meaningful counterrotation.
OpenDefinition
Trend Following
A trading approach that tries to participate in sustained directional movement rather than fading it.
OpenDefinition
Trend Ribbon
A multi-line moving-average display used to show short-term alignment, compression, or trend expansion.
OpenDefinition
Trendline Break
A move through a manually drawn or algorithmically defined trendline.
OpenDefinition
Unfinished Auction
A profile concept suggesting the market has not clearly completed price discovery at an extreme.
OpenDefinition
Value Area High
The upper boundary of the price area where most session activity was concentrated.
OpenDefinition
Value Area Low
The lower boundary of the price area where most session activity was concentrated.
OpenDefinition
Volatility
The degree to which price is expanding and contracting over time.
OpenDefinition
Volume Bar
A bar that completes after a set amount of volume trades rather than after a set amount of time.
OpenDefinition
VWAP
Volume weighted average price, a benchmark that weights price by traded volume.
OpenDefinition
Win Rate
The percentage of trades or signals that finish as winners.
OpenDefinition
Workspace
A saved platform environment that holds chart windows, layouts, and tool states together.
Open