Trading glossary

S&P 500 Index S&P 500 Index Definition: The S&P 500 (Standard & Poor's 500) is a stock market index measuring the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded US companies. The index is market-capitalizatio... SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users) SAFU Definition: SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users) is Binance's emergency insurance fund, established in July 2018, that holds a reserve of cryptocurrency to compensate users in extreme cases — pr... Satoshi Satoshi Definition: A satoshi (abbreviated "sat") is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC, or 10⁻⁸ BTC). Named after Bitcoin's pseudonymous crea... Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto Definition: Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous person or group who created Bitcoin, authored the Bitcoin whitepaper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" published on ... Scalping Scalping Definition: Scalping is a high-frequency trading strategy that targets very small price movements — typically 0.1–1% per trade — executing dozens to hundreds of trades per day to accumulat... Securities Securities Definition: Securities are tradeable financial instruments that represent financial value — including stocks (equity in a company), bonds (debt obligations), options, futures, and other ... Securities Market Securities Market Definition: A securities market is an organised marketplace where financial instruments — stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, and other securities — are bought and sold between investor... Seed Phrase Seed Phrase Definition: A seed phrase (also called a recovery phrase, mnemonic phrase, or backup phrase) is a sequence of 12 or 24 ordinary English words that encodes the master private key of a cr... Sell Wall Sell Wall Definition: A sell wall is a large cluster of sell limit orders concentrated at a specific price level in an exchange's order book, creating significant resistance that the market must ab... Sentimental Value Sentimental Value Definition: Sentimental value is the subjective, emotional worth a person assigns to an object or asset based on personal associations, memories, or emotional significance — indep... Settlement Price Settlement Price Definition: The settlement price is the official end-of-session price used by exchanges to calculate daily mark-to-market gains and losses on futures contracts, determine margin re... Sharding Sharding Definition: Sharding is a blockchain scaling technique that horizontally partitions the network into multiple parallel chains called "shards," with each shard processing a subset of transa... Share Share Definition: A share is a single unit of ownership in a corporation, representing a proportional claim on the company's assets, earnings, and voting rights. Each share entitles its holder to a... Shareholder Shareholder Definition: A shareholder (also called a stockholder) is any individual, institution, or entity that owns at least one share of a company's stock — making them a part-owner of the corpo... Sharpe Ratio Sharpe Ratio Definition: The Sharpe ratio is a measure of risk-adjusted return, calculated as (portfolio return - risk-free rate) divided by portfolio standard deviation. Developed by Nobel laureat... Shiba Inu (SHIB) Shiba Inu Definition: Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a cryptocurrency created in 2020 as a "Dogecoin killer" — a self-described parody of Dogecoin featuring the same Shiba Inu dog mascot. SHIB is an ERC-20 to... Shooting Star Candlestick Shooting Star Candlestick Definition: The Shooting Star is a single-candle bearish reversal pattern formed when a candle has a small body near the bottom of its range with a long upper shadow at le... Short Position Short Position Definition: A short position is a trade that profits when the price of an asset falls, achieved by selling an asset the trader does not own (typically borrowed) with the intention of... Short Squeeze Short Squeeze Definition: A short squeeze is a rapid price increase in an asset that forces short sellers to cover their positions by buying back shares, which amplifies the price movement higher t... Sidechain Sidechain Definition: A Sidechain is a separate blockchain that operates independently from a main chain (typically Bitcoin or Ethereum) with its own consensus mechanism and validators, connected t... Sideways Market Sideways Market Definition: A sideways market is a price environment where an asset oscillates between defined support and resistance levels without establishing clear directional trend, typically ... Simple Moving Average (SMA) Simple Moving Average (SMA) Definition: A Simple Moving Average is calculated by adding the closing prices of an asset over a specified number of periods and dividing by that number, producing a sm... Slippage Slippage Definition: Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual price at which it executes, occurring most commonly when market orders consume more order book l... Slippage Tolerance Slippage Tolerance Definition: Slippage tolerance is a trader-specified parameter defining the maximum acceptable price deviation between order submission and execution, protecting against unfavora... Smart Contract Smart Contract Definition: A Smart Contract is a self-executing computer program stored on a blockchain that automatically enforces and executes the terms of an agreement when predefined conditions... Social Trading Social Trading Definition: Social trading is an investment approach where traders share their strategies, positions, and analysis publicly — and where followers can automatically replicate ("copy t... Soft Fork Soft Fork Definition: A Soft Fork is a backward-compatible change to a blockchain's protocol rules where the new rules are stricter than the old rules — non-upgraded nodes continue accepting blocks... Soft Fork Soft Fork Definition: A Soft Fork is a backward-compatible change to a blockchain's protocol rules where the new rules are stricter than the old rules — non-upgraded nodes continue accepting blocks... Solana (SOL) Solana Definition: Solana is a high-speed blockchain designed for scalability, launched in 2020 by Anatoly Yakovenko. It uses a novel consensus mechanism called Proof of History (PoH) combined with... Solidity Solidity Definition: Solidity is the dominant programming language for writing smart contracts on Ethereum and EVM-compatible blockchains, designed as a high-level, statically-typed language with s... Solvency Solvency Definition: Solvency is a financial institution's or company's ability to meet all of its long-term financial obligations — having total assets that exceed total liabilities, ensuring it c... Spinning Top Candlestick Spinning Top Candlestick Definition: The Spinning Top is a single-candle indecision pattern characterized by a small real body (typically less than 1/3 of the total candle range) with long upper an... Spot Bitcoin ETF Spot Bitcoin ETF Definition: A Spot Bitcoin ETF is a regulated exchange-traded fund that holds actual Bitcoin in custody (rather than futures contracts), providing investors direct Bitcoin price ex... Spot Market Spot Market Definition: A spot market is a financial venue where assets are bought and sold for immediate delivery and settlement at current market prices, distinguishing it from futures or derivat... Spot Trading Spot Trading Definition: Spot trading is the purchase or sale of a financial asset for immediate delivery and settlement at the current market price — the "spot price." Unlike futures or options tr... Spread Spread Definition: In trading, spread refers to the difference between the bid price (what buyers will pay) and the ask price (what sellers will accept) for an asset — the gap that represents the i... Stablecoin Stablecoin Definition: A Stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain stable value relative to a reference asset — typically the US dollar — through various mechanisms including fiat reserve... Staking Staking Definition: Staking is the process of locking cryptocurrency in a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain network to support security and operations while earning rewards from new token issuance an... Staking Pool Staking Pool Definition: A staking pool is a cooperative arrangement where multiple cryptocurrency holders combine their holdings to participate in proof-of-stake blockchain validation together — p... Standard Deviation Standard Deviation Definition: Standard Deviation is a statistical measure that quantifies the dispersion of values around their mean (average), providing the foundational volatility measurement us... State Channel State Channel Definition: A State Channel is a Layer 2 scaling solution that allows two or more parties to conduct multiple transactions off-chain by opening a "channel" on the blockchain, transact... Stochastic Oscillator Stochastic Oscillator Definition: The Stochastic Oscillator is a momentum indicator developed by George Lane in the late 1950s, comparing the current closing price to the price range over a specifi... Stochastic RSI Stochastic RSI Definition: The Stochastic RSI (StochRSI) is a technical indicator that applies the Stochastic oscillator formula to RSI values rather than to price, creating a more sensitive and fa... Stock Market Stock Market Definition: The stock market is the aggregate of exchanges and over-the-counter markets where shares of publicly listed companies are bought and sold by investors — functioning as the ... Stock Valuation Stock Valuation Definition: Stock valuation is the process of estimating the intrinsic value of a company's shares — what they should be worth based on the underlying business's earnings, growth, r... Stop Loss Stop Loss Definition: A stop loss is a pre-set order that automatically closes a trade when the asset reaches a specified unfavorable price, limiting the loss on a losing position. For a long posit... Stop Order Stop Order Definition: A stop order is a conditional order that becomes active and executes only when the asset's price reaches a specified trigger level — the stop price. Stop-loss orders protect ... Store Of Value Store of Value Definition: A store of value is an asset that maintains its purchasing power over time — that can be held today and exchanged for goods and services in the future without significant... Sui (SUI) Sui Definition: Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain created by Mysten Labs (founded by former Meta engineers) emphasizing developer experience and move semantic capabilities. Sui uses proof-of-stake consen... Supply Supply Definition: Supply is the quantity of an asset, good, or service that producers, sellers, or holders are willing to make available at various price levels over a given time period. In financ... Support Level Support Level Definition: A support level is a specific price level at which an asset has historically attracted enough buying interest to halt or reverse a decline. Support is identified through p... Swing Trading Swing Trading Definition: Swing trading is a medium-term trading style where positions are held for several days to several weeks, capturing intermediate price moves while avoiding the time intensi... Symmetrical Triangle Symmetrical Triangle Definition: A Symmetrical Triangle is a neutral chart pattern formed when price action creates two converging trendlines — a descending resistance line connecting lower highs a...