Slang is a term denoting a set of specific words and expressions which are peculiar of non-official communication for a certain group of people. The speech of the representatives of different professions, cultural societies, and geographic places has its peculiarities reflecting the views of people and in fact pointing at their society and status. Slang or jargon deviates from the literary language norm but most often it makes the communication between people easier, adding special colouring to the speech of people. Traders also have their jargon words as they have a good sense of humour and imagination.

The list of the words below contains the major terms which are used by the traders in non-formal communication; it will help the newbie of the market to get into the core of trading faster.

Bull market (bullish) – market in uptrend.

Bear market (bearish) – market in downtrend.

Margin call – the moment when there is a lack of maintenance margin account, you must either upload your account or close some open positions.

Tick, Item – the minimum step change in the price.

Long (position), also ‘longs’ – to buy something, to assume an increase.

Short (position), also ‘shorts’ – to sell something, to assume a drop.

Heat – how big risks are we taking in our trade.

Range – when the market doesn’t move either in downtrend or uptrend for some time.

Flat (Square) – neutral state when all your positions are closed.

Set up – particular environment for a trade.

Gap – a difference between the previous period’s close price and the next period’s open price.

Whipsaw – a condition of a highly volatile market where a sharp price movement is quickly followed by a sharp reversal.

Rally – a recovery in price after a period of decline.

Profit (Gain) – positive amount of money gained for closing the position.

Loss – loss of the transaction (or in the open position).

Pip (Point) – the last digit in the rate (e.g. for EUR/USD 1 point = 0.0001).

Slippage – execution of order for a price different than expected (ordered), main reasons for slippage are: “fast” market, low liquidity and low broker’s ability to execute orders.

Drawdown – the amount of the decline in value of a forex trading account, expressed either in dollars or as a percentage, between its highest and lowest points.

Squeeze – action by a central bank to reduce supply in order to increase the price of money.

Limit – order to buy or sell currency at a specified price or better.

Lock – the opening of two positions for one instrument, one specification and the same size in different directions.

Majors – the most popular currency pairs available for trading, include EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, USD/CAD and AUD/USD. Less traded pairs are known as “Exotics”.

Cable – GBP, British Pound .

Aussie – AUD, Australian Dollar.

Swissie – CHF, Swiss Federation franc.

Kiwi – NZD, New Zealand dollar.

Loonie – CAD, Canadian Dollar.

Holy Grail – consistently profitable trading system.

This list of course is not complete, there are hundreds of other words and meanings in trader slang and it is continually growing.

Added by Alexey Skachilov,
InstaForex Clients’ relationship manager