Crypto trading, like any other sphere where humans work together, has its own lingo. Hearing (or reading) it can be really confusing for novice traders. Since traders work with money, any misunderstanding can lead to losses. To help you avoid such losses, we decided to compile our own crypto trading glossary.
Table of Contents
- Airdrop
- Altcoin
- AML
- Arbitrage
- Ashdraked
- Ask Price
- ATH
- Bagholder
- Bear
- Bear Trap
- Bid Price
- Bitcoin ATM
- Blockchain
- Bollinger Band
- BTD
- Bubble
- Bull
- Bull Trap
- Candle/Candlestick Chart
- Close
- Cold Storage
- Dead Cat Bounce
- Deposit Fee
- Depth Chart
- Derivatives Market
- Deterministic Wallet
- ETF
- Bitcoin Dominance
- Double-spending
- Exchange
- Fiat Currency
- Futures
- FUD
- Going Long/Short
- Hardware Wallet
- Hot Wallet
- JOMO
- KYC
- Limit Order
- Liquidity
- MACD
- Margin Call
- Margin Trading
- Market Capitalization
- Mooning
- One Cancels The Other Order
- Open/Close
- OTC
- Pair
- Paper Wallet
- Pump and Dump
- Resistance
- ROI
- RSI
- Sig/Signature
- Software Wallet
- Spread
- Stop Loss Order
- Support
- Technical Analysis
- Think Long Term
- Trading Volume
- Trading Fee
- Volatility
- Whale
- Withdrawal Fee
- About Changelly
Airdrop
A free of charge crypto distribution method. Usually happens during the beginning of a hard fork attempt to attract more users or retain already existing.
Altcoin
Any other crypto coin other than Bitcoin, though some argue that Ethereum should also be excluded from the list.
AML
Anti-money-laundering laws, regulations, and procedures that aim to end the unlawful income practices.
Arbitrage
A method of getting profit by using price differences between various exchanges. For example, if Bitcoin costs $9,000 on one exchange and $9,080 on another one, then the arbitrage profit would be $80 if you buy at the first one and sell at the second.
Ashdraked
Being ‘Ashdraked’ means losing all your money by shorting Bitcoin. It comes from the name of a Romanian investor who insisted on shorting Bitcoin and, as a result, lost all his investments.
Ask Price
A price that the seller is willing to accept for their crypto.
ATH
‘All-time High’. In the context of cryptocurrencies, it marks the maximum price ever reached by the crypto.
Bagholder
A person who either holds a crashing coin or altcoin after it was Pumped and Dumped.
Bear
A bear is a trader who banks on the market value going down. A bear market is a period during which the price of the asset goes down,
Bear Trap
A situation when the price of the asset goes down, prompting bears to sell their positions, and then starts to rise again, thus ‘trapping’ them.
Bid Price
A price that the buyer is willing to pay for the crypto. Opposite of the ‘Ask Price’
Bitcoin ATM
ATM that allows people to purchase Bitcoin using a debit or credit card.
Blockchain
The technology behind the crypto, it is a public database protected by cryptology, that can only be updated by its owners.
Bollinger Band
Bollinger Band (BBand), is a margin around the price of a certain cryptocurrency, that allows seeing whether it is being overbought or oversold.
BTD
‘Buy the dip’ – used as an advice to buy an asset during the price dip.
Bubble
A crypto bubble is a state when crypto’s price remains stable for a long time before its price explodes and goes up. When the ‘burst’ of a bubble happens, its price starts to drop as quickly as it rose.
Bull
Opposite of a bear, a bull is a trader who bets on the market value going up. A bull market is a period of time when the price of an asset goes up.
Bull Trap
Opposite of a Bear Trap, this is a situation when the price of an asset goes up, prompting bulls to buy it, and then starts to fall.
Candle/Candlestick Chart
It is one of the most popular price charts that shows the highest crypto price, the lowest one, and the prices at the opening and the closing of the trade during a certain time period.
Close
The end of a trading session when the financial markets close. It also has another meaning: the closing of a certain deal.
Cold Storage
A way to store your cryptocurrency offline, usually on hardware or paper wallet.
Dead Cat Bounce
A small, brief recovery of a crypto’s price, followed by further decline.
Deposit Fee
A fee that most exchanges take when you deposit fiat currency on the platform. It can be either a fixed fee, or depend on the sum in question.
Depth Chart
A display showing the total number of buy and sell orders. It is usually split in two, allowing to show buy and sell orders at the same time.
Derivatives Market
A market for financial derivatives, like futures and options.
Deterministic Wallet
It is a wallet that needs to be backed up only once. It generates all your keys and addresses and can be recovered from the “seed”.
ETF
An Exchange-traded Fund, an investment fund that users trade on exchanges and trading platforms.
Bitcoin Dominance
The ratio between the market share of Bitcoin and that of altcoins.
Double-spending
A successful attempt to use the same crypto coins for multiple payments at once.
Exchange
A platform that allows you to swap your crypto coins for another crypto or fiat money.
Fiat Currency
It is a currency controlled by the government and declared by it to be a legal one, while not being backed by a commodity. Good examples of fiat are USD, EUR, and GBP.
Futures
Futures, or a futures contract, is an agreement to buy or sell an asset on a certain date at a predetermined price.
FUD
Negativity and panic spread by someone who wants to profit from it (a FUDster).
Going Long/Short
Going Long/Short is a margin trade situation that happens when the trader profits from the rising/falling price of the crypto.
Hardware Wallet
A device that can safely store cryptocurrency.
Hot Wallet
A wallet that can be accessed from the internet. Less secure than their Cold Storage counterparts.
JOMO
‘Joy of missing out’, a trading concept when traders should sometimes take a time-out to carefully assess the situation, without worry that they will miss a good deal.
KYC
‘Know Your Client’. A procedure when a trading platform or exchange would require you to confirm your identity in order for you to use them.
Limit Order
An order placed by a trader to make a deal when the crypto’s price reaches a certain threshold.
Liquidity
An ability of crypto to be sold without causing a significant price change, or a value loss.
MACD
The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence indicator. This is a technical indicator used in the technical analysis assessment of forecasts and fluctuations in the cryptocurrency market.
Margin Call
A situation when one or more securities in the trader’s account have fallen below a certain threshold, prompting the trader to either deposit more money or sell some assets.
Margin Trading
A type of trading, when you add leverage to your trades. It works by borrowing money to increase your buying power.
Market Capitalization
A total value of the cryptocurrency, calculated by multiplying the price of a single coin on the total amount of coins.
Mooning
In terms of crypto trading, mooning means a rapid rise of a crypto price to record heights.
One Cancels The Other Order
A pair of orders with a stipulation that if one of the orders is executed, another should be immediately canceled. Used for risk mitigation and to enter the market.
Open/Close
Opening position means that the trader entered the market and holds a certain amount of the crypto. To close the position, a trader should either sell or buy that crypto, depending on whether he chose a close or long one.
OTC
OTC, or ‘Over The Counter’ is trading that happens directly between two parties, with no exchanges or trading platforms involved.
Pair
Pair trading is a strategy when a trader opens two opposing positions in related assets, to ensure that they will win no matter what happens on the market.
Paper Wallet
A wallet that is produced by directly printing the keys and addresses on the paper (hence the name).
Pump and Dump
A tactic of inflating the price of altcoin by getting more people interested in it, followed by the crash.
Resistance
A certain price limit that the crypto in question will rarely, if ever, exceed.
ROI
Return on investment, a percentage that shows the amount of profit made compared to the initial investment.
RSI
Relative Strength Indicator, a way to ascertain whether the crypto is being oversold or overbought, allowing you to find the best entry and exit points.
Sig/Signature
An encrypted authentication key.
Software Wallet
Storage for cryptocurrency that works entirely as a program on the trader’s computer.
Spread
A price difference between asking and selling prices of the asset.
Stop Loss Order
It is an order designed to limit possible losses by stopping the trade on reaching a certain level. It could be set on any desired threshold.
Support
The opposite of Resistance, it is a threshold that crypto’s price doesn’t fall below.
Technical Analysis
A trading strategy that evaluates investments and trading potential of cryptocurrencies based on the statistical data.
Think Long Term
It is common advice for traders, prompting them to invest more in long-term trading, allowing them to get more profit later, instead of some profit now.
Trading Volume
The total number of crypto was traded during a certain period of time.
Trading Fee
A fee that you pay for a transaction on the exchange or a trading platform.
Volatility
The intensity of the crypto’s price fluctuations, the currency is considered volatile if its price changes significantly on a daily basis.
Whale
A person who holds enough cryptocurrency to be able to significantly influence its price dynamics.
Withdrawal Fee
A fee that exchanges or trading platforms receive on the withdrawal of money from the deposit.
While it is by no means a complete glossary, since new terms keep appearing, we hope that you will find it useful. If you need more information on crypto trading, you can always find it on our blog. Stay tuned for more!
Now that you know what those terms mean, you can enter trading armed and ready. To start, you can always buy some crypto via Changelly: