Trading Glossary

B-Book Broker

A B-book broker takes the other side of your trade instead of passing it to the market. How A-book and B-book routing differ, and what each one costs you.

Backtesting

Backtesting simulates a trading strategy on historical price data. What it can prove, what it cannot, and why live broker-synced results almost always differ.

Cent Account

A cent account denominates every monetary figure in hundredths of the base currency, so a balance reading 50,000 is really $500. Percentages are unaffected.

Cost Percentage

Cost percentage is the share of gross trading result taken by commission and swap. Here is the formula, why spread is missing, and what real accounts pay.

cTrader

cTrader is the main alternative to MetaTrader for retail forex. What it does differently, how OAuth authorisation works, and the real platform split we see.

Drawdown

Drawdown is the peak-to-trough fall in an account's value, in percent. Here is the formula, why it is cumulative, and what thousands of real trading accounts show.

Expert Advisor

An Expert Advisor is a program that trades inside MetaTrader on your behalf. What it can do, what it cannot, and how automated the accounts published here are.

Interest Rates

Central bank interest rates set the rate differential between two currencies, which becomes the swap you pay or earn every night you hold a position open.

Leverage

Leverage is the ratio between position size and the capital backing it. Here is the margin formula, a worked example, and drawdown data from thousands of accounts.

Lot

A lot is the unit trade size is measured in: 100,000 units of base currency for one standard lot. The contract size arithmetic, and 1.7 million real lots.

Magic Number

A magic number is the integer an Expert Advisor stamps on every order it opens, so one account can hold several strategies and still be read one by one.

Maximum Drawdown

Maximum drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough fall an account ever recorded. The formula, the recovery table, and the real spread across thousands of accounts.

MetaTrader

MetaTrader is the platform most retail forex accounts run on. What separates MT4 from MT5, what the investor password does, and the real platform split we see.

Order Execution

Order execution is how a broker turns your request into a filled trade. Market vs instant execution, requotes, partial fills, and how to measure quality.

Pip

A pip is the standard unit of price movement in forex, usually 0.0001. How pip value depends on lot size and quote currency, and why pip totals mislead.

Position Sizing

Position sizing turns a risk percentage into a lot size using your stop distance and pip value. The formula, the three common methods, and what bad sizing costs.

Profit Factor

Profit factor is gross profit divided by gross loss. Below 1.0 an account loses by construction. Here are the bands and the 1.28 median across thousands of accounts.

Regulated Broker

A regulated broker operates under a financial authority that enforces segregated funds, leverage caps and compensation schemes. What that does not cover.

Slippage

Slippage is the difference between the price you expected and the price you got. Why it is worst when it hurts most, and how latency makes it measurable.

Spread

A spread is the gap between the bid and ask price, the cost you pay to enter a trade. Here is how it works, what it costs per lot, and why brokers differ.

Swap

A swap is the interest charged or paid for holding a forex position overnight. How it is calculated, why Wednesday is triple, and what thousands of accounts pay.

TradeLocker

TradeLocker is the browser platform many prop firms issue instead of MetaTrader. How it works, why it exists, and how a track record gets published from one.

Trading Portfolio

A portfolio merges several trading accounts into one equity curve, so gain and drawdown are recomputed on the whole thing instead of averaged across accounts.

Trading Widget

A trading widget embeds a live broker-synced account inside another website. Three formats, seven interactive views, eleven image types, and no screenshots.

Unlisted Account

Unlisted is a third visibility state: the account page works for anyone holding the link, but it is absent from Explore, search and your public profile.

Verified Track Record

A verified track record is performance data pulled straight from the broker through a read-only link, continuously, with nothing the publisher can edit.

VPS

A VPS is an always-on rented server that keeps your trading terminal running and connected when your own computer sleeps, reboots or loses its connection.