- Futures
- Contracts that let traders buy or sell a market (here the Nasdaq-100 stock index) at today's price, traded almost around the clock.
- NQ
- The symbol for Nasdaq-100 futures. CandleLab's practice charts are modelled on how NQ moves.
- Price
- The value at which something trades right now.
- Chart
- A picture of how price has moved over time.
- Candlestick (candle)
- A picture of what price did during one period of time.
- Timeframe
- How much time each candle covers, for example 5 minutes.
- Point
- The unit these prices are counted in. From 20,000.00 to 20,001.00 is one point.
- Tick
- The smallest step price can move. On CandleLab's charts one tick is 0.25 points.
- Price scale
- The prices along the right edge of a chart. Go straight across from any point to read its price.
- Open
- The price at the start of a candle's period.
- Close
- The price at the end of a candle's period.
- High
- The highest price reached during the candle's period.
- Low
- The lowest price reached during the candle's period.
- Body
- The thick part of a candle, between the open and the close.
- Wick
- The thin line above or below the body, showing prices reached beyond it.
- Bullish candle
- A candle that closed above its open: buyers pushed price up during that period. Drawn green. It describes that one candle only.
- Bearish candle
- A candle that closed below its open: sellers pushed price down during that period. Drawn red. It describes that one candle only.
- Doji
- A candle whose open and close are exactly the same price. Nearly equal still counts as a direction in CandleLab.
- High (peak)
- The top of a move, where price turns from rising to falling.
- Low (valley)
- The bottom of a move, where price turns from falling to rising.
- Turning point
- A place where price changes direction. In CandleLab: an up candle followed by a down candle (a high), or the reverse (a low).
- Swing
- One wave of price: a move up or a move down, from one turn to the next.
- Swing high
- The top of a wave. In CandleLab: a high above the highs of the 2 candles before it and the 2 after it.
- Swing low
- The bottom of a wave. In CandleLab: a low below the lows of the 2 candles before it and the 2 after it.
- Confirmation
- Having enough finished candles to say a pattern is really there. A swing is confirmed when the 2nd candle after it closes.
- Equal highs / lows (EH / EL)
- Two highs (or two lows) at exactly the same price, to the tick. Even one tick apart isn't equal.
- Trend
- The overall direction price has been moving.
- Higher high (HH)
- A swing high above the previous swing high.
- Higher low (HL)
- A swing low above the previous swing low.
- Lower high (LH)
- A swing high below the previous swing high.
- Lower low (LL)
- A swing low below the previous swing low.
- Pullback
- A short move against the current direction.
- Range
- Price moving sideways between an upper and a lower area.
- Price level
- A particular price traders may watch, such as an old high or low.
- Order
- An instruction to buy or sell. An order waiting at a price only trades if price gets there.
- Liquidity
- Buying and selling interest that lets trades happen.
- Support
- An area where buying interest may help slow a fall. Not a promise.
- Resistance
- An area where selling interest may help slow a rise. Not a promise.
- Flip
- When price closes through a level and then comes back to it from the other side: old resistance watched as support, or old support watched as resistance.
- Stop-loss
- An order meant to limit a loss once price reaches a set point.
- Buy-side liquidity
- The orders traders assume rest just above old highs: sellers' stop-losses and orders to buy if price climbs above. Assumed, never visible on a chart.
- Sell-side liquidity
- The orders traders assume rest just below old lows: buyers' stop-losses and orders to sell if price falls below. Assumed, never visible on a chart.
- Draw on liquidity
- The nearest old high or low price hasn't traded through yet, read as a possible next destination. A way of reading the chart, not a forecast.
- Trend liquidity
- Stop-losses resting just beyond a run of rising lows (or falling highs). One move through the latest of them can take many at once.
- Stacked liquidity
- Several swing highs (or lows) less than about half an average candle's height apart, treated as one bigger target. It's cleared only when price trades at least one tick beyond the furthest of them.
- Breach
- Price trades beyond a marked level, even just with a wick.
- Sweep
- A candle trades beyond a level but closes back at or inside it.
- Break
- A candle closes beyond a marked level.
- Delayed rejection
- A candle closes beyond a level, then a close comes back inside within 3 candles.
- Continuation
- After a close beyond a level, the next 3 candles all close beyond it too.
- Near miss
- Price gets close to a level without reaching it.
- Inducement
- A small high or low that baits early traders, gets swept, and is followed by a close beyond the last swing on the other side.
- Market structure
- The arrangement of the confirmed highs and lows.
- Break of Structure (BOS)
- A close beyond the latest confirmed swing, in the structure direction.
- Change of Character (CHoCH)
- A close beyond the latest confirmed swing, against the structure direction: a possible change, not proof.
- Main structure
- The big swings (in CandleLab, 5 candles on each side) and the breaks of them.
- Internal structure
- The small swings and breaks inside a bigger move. Breaking them doesn't break the main structure.
- Strong high / low
- The swing a break of structure was built from. Traders defended it, so it's less likely to be taken.
- Weak high / low
- A swing made against the trend that broke nothing. The stops beyond it are still there, so it's the likelier target.
- Displacement
- A fast, strong move made of unusually large candles, often leaving gaps behind it.
- Imbalance
- Another name some traders use for a fair value gap: price moved through the band so fast that one side barely traded.
- Fair Value Gap (FVG)
- Three candles where candle 1's and candle 3's wicks don't overlap, leaving a price band between them.
- ATR (Average True Range)
- Typical recent movement per candle, counting jumps from the previous close.
- Fill
- Price coming back into part or all of an earlier gap.
- Gap midpoint (50%)
- The price halfway between a gap's top and bottom. Many traders watch it when price comes back into the gap.
- Inverse FVG
- A gap that a candle closed straight through. Traders then often watch it from the other side.
- Confluence
- Several separate readings pointing to the same price area, such as the trend, a swept level and a fresh gap. A stronger reason to pay attention, never a certainty.
- Session
- A part of the trading day named after the market most active then: Asia, London or New York.
- Session high / low
- The highest and lowest price traded during one session. Final once the session ends.
- Previous day high / low
- Yesterday's highest and lowest price. The trading day runs 18:00 to 17:00 Eastern.
- Previous week high / low
- The highest and lowest price of last week's trading days.
- New York open
- 9:30 Eastern, when the New York stock market opens. Often the busiest moment of the day.
- Opening range
- The high and low of the first 30 minutes after the New York open (9:30–10:00 Eastern).
- Busy window
- A time of day when price usually moves most: the London open (2:00–5:00) and the New York open (8:30–11:00) Eastern. Often called killzones.
- Higher timeframe
- A bigger candle size than the one you trade on, such as the 1-hour or 4-hour chart while trading the 5-minute.
- Bias
- The direction you favour, read from the higher timeframes. A starting point for the smaller chart, not a forecast.
- Top-down reading
- Reading the charts from the biggest timeframe to the smallest: direction first, timing last.
- Dealing range
- The range between the latest big swing high and big swing low.
- External liquidity
- Stops resting beyond the dealing range's high or low.
- Internal liquidity
- Stops resting at the smaller highs and lows inside the dealing range.
- Premium
- The upper half of the dealing range, above its middle. Where sellers prefer to sell.
- Discount
- The lower half of the dealing range, below its middle. Where buyers prefer to buy.
- Order block
- The last opposite candle before a move that breaks structure: the last down candle before a bullish break, the last up candle before a bearish one.
- Breaker block
- An order block that a candle closed straight through. Traders then often watch it from the other side.
Words from later modules appear here once you reach them.