- 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.
Words from later modules appear here once you reach them.