This trading glossary collects the words that come up again and again across forex, shares and crypto. Jump to a letter, or use your browser's find function to look up a single term. Where a term has a full guide on KryosTrade, the definition links to it.
How to use this trading glossary
Three families of words cover most of what you will read. Price words (bid, ask, spread, slippage, gap) describe what you pay and receive. Risk words (leverage, margin, margin call, stop-loss, negative balance protection) describe how much you can lose and what the platform does when losses grow. Custody words (private key, seed phrase, cold storage, hot wallet, proof of reserves) describe who actually controls an asset. If a term on a platform's screen does not fit any of these three families, look it up before you press anything.
Terms beginners confuse most
- Margin and leverage describe the same thing from two sides: 30:1 leverage means margin of about 3.33% of the position.
- Maker and taker fees depend on whether your order waits in the book or fills at once, not on whether you buy or sell.
- Exchange and wallet are different: one is a business that matches trades, the other holds the key to your coins.
- Stablecoin and bank deposit are not equivalent, even when both are "worth" one dollar.
A to Z
- Address
- A string of characters that identifies where crypto can be sent on a particular blockchain, similar to an account number. Tron USDT addresses begin with T; Ethereum addresses begin with 0x.
- Ask price
- The lowest price at which someone is currently willing to sell; it is the price you pay when you buy. It is always a little above the bid, and the gap between them is the spread.
- Base currency
- The first currency in a forex pair, the one being bought or sold. In GBP/USD the base is the pound. See the forex guide.
- Bid price
- The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay; it is the price you receive when you sell. Charts on many platforms plot the bid, so the price you can buy at is slightly higher than the line you see.
- Block reward
- The new coins a miner receives for adding a block. On Bitcoin it has been 3.125 BTC since the April 2024 halving.
- Blockchain
- A shared, append-only record of transactions copied across many computers, grouped into linked blocks that are very hard to alter. Different blockchains use different rules to agree on new blocks, such as proof of work or proof of stake. See how crypto works.
- Cold storage
- Keeping the private keys to crypto on a device or medium that is not connected to the internet, reducing the risk of online theft. Exchanges usually keep most customer coins in cold storage and a smaller amount online for withdrawals.
- Custody
- Who holds an asset on your behalf. A broker or exchange providing custody holds your shares or coins; with self-custody, you hold them yourself. Custody decides what happens to your assets if a platform fails, which makes it one of the first things to check.
- Dividend
- A cash payment some companies make to shareholders from their profits. It is never guaranteed and can be cut. The dividend yield compares a year of payments with the share price.
- Exchange
- A marketplace where buyers and sellers are matched, such as a stock exchange or a crypto exchange. KryosTrade is not one.
- Gap
- A jump in price between one trade and the next with no trading in between, common when a market reopens after a weekend or overnight. A gap can carry the price straight past a stop-loss, so the order fills at a worse level.
- Halving
- The scheduled cut in Bitcoin's block reward, roughly every four years. See the Bitcoin guide.
- Hot wallet
- A crypto wallet whose keys are held on an internet-connected device; convenient for frequent use but more exposed to hacking.
- Index
- A number that tracks the combined performance of a basket of shares, such as the S&P 500 or FTSE 100.
- KYC
- Know Your Customer: identity checks that regulated platforms must carry out before letting you trade or withdraw. A genuine platform collects documents through its own secure process, never through a chat app or email to a personal address.
- Leverage
- Borrowed exposure that lets a small deposit control a larger position, magnifying both gains and losses. At 30:1, a 1% move changes the value of the margin committed by 30%. See the margin calculator.
- Limit order
- An instruction to buy only at or below a set price, or sell only at or above it. It controls price but may not be filled.
- Liquidity
- How easily something can be bought or sold without moving its price much. High liquidity usually means tight spreads. Liquidity can disappear quickly in a panic, when everyone wants to sell at once.
- Lot
- A standard trade size in forex: a standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, a mini lot 10,000 and a micro lot 1,000.
- Maker fee
- The fee charged when your order rests in the order book and adds liquidity, typically lower than a taker fee.
- Margin
- The deposit a broker locks while a leveraged position is open. It is collateral, not a cap on what you can lose.
- Margin call
- A warning, or automatic action, when your account's equity falls too low to support open positions. UK and EU retail positions are closed at a 50% margin level.
- Market capitalisation
- Price multiplied by the number of shares or coins in circulation; a measure of total market value. It is a better way to compare coins or companies than the price of a single unit.
- Market order
- An instruction to buy or sell straight away at the best available price, which may differ from the last price you saw.
- Mining
- Using computing power to add blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain such as Bitcoin, in return for new coins and fees. See crypto mining companies.
- Negative balance protection
- A rule that stops retail clients of UK and EU brokers losing more than the money in their account.
- Order book
- The live list of waiting buy and sell orders at each price on an exchange. A deep order book can absorb large orders without big price moves; a thin one cannot.
- Penny stock
- A share that trades at a very low price, often with little trading and limited information. See how penny stocks work.
- Pip
- The standard unit of forex price movement: 0.0001 for most pairs and 0.01 for yen pairs. See the pip calculator.
- Private key
- The secret number that proves ownership of crypto at an address. Whoever has it controls the coins. If it is lost and there is no backup, the coins cannot be recovered by anyone.
- Proof of reserves
- A report by a crypto platform showing the assets it holds for customers; most useful when it also shows liabilities and is independently checked.
- Quote currency
- The second currency in a forex pair, in which the price is expressed. In GBP/USD it is the dollar.
- Seed phrase
- A list of 12 or 24 words that can restore a crypto wallet's keys. Never share it with anyone. Keep it offline, on paper or metal, somewhere safe from fire and prying eyes; anyone asking for it is attempting theft.
- Slippage
- The difference between the price you expected and the price your order actually filled at.
- Spread
- The gap between the bid and ask prices; a cost paid on every trade. See trading fees explained.
- Stablecoin
- A crypto token designed to keep a steady value, usually one US dollar, backed by reserves or other mechanisms. Its stability depends on the issuer and can fail under stress.
- Stop-loss
- An order that closes a position automatically once the price reaches a set level, used to limit losses; it can fill at a worse price in fast markets.
- Swap
- The overnight financing charge or credit on a leveraged forex or CFD position held past the daily rollover. It reflects the interest-rate gap between the two currencies plus the provider's charge, and is often tripled on Wednesdays.
- Taker fee
- The fee charged when your order fills immediately against waiting orders; usually higher than a maker fee.
- USDT
- Tether's US-dollar stablecoin, issued on several blockchains. See what USDT is.
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