Trading Glossary
Absolute Gain
Absolute gain is net closed profit and loss divided by total deposits. Here is the formula, how it differs from Gain, and what published accounts show.
AHPR and GHPR
AHPR and GHPR are the arithmetic and geometric average return per trade. The formulas, why the geometric one is always lower, and thousands of accounts measured.
Avg. Trade Length
Average trade length is the mean time a closed position stayed open. The formula, why it is a mean rather than a typical trade, and what thousands of accounts show.
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.
Copy Trading
Copy trading reproduces one account's orders on another. Here are the three sizing modes, and why your result never matches the source account exactly.
Correlation Risk
Correlation risk is running several positions or accounts that are really one bet. How correlated exposure multiplies drawdown, and what thousands of traders show.
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.
Curve Fitting
Curve fitting is optimising a strategy until it describes past data perfectly and predicts nothing. The warning signs, and why only live results settle it.
Daily Drawdown Limit
A daily drawdown limit caps how much an account may lose in one trading day, measured from a daily reference. Balance versus equity, reset times, and real data.
DD on Balance
DD on Balance is the deepest peak-to-trough fall in closed results only. How to read it against equity drawdown, and what published accounts show.
Demo vs Live Account
A demo account trades simulated money on real prices. Why demo fills flatter a strategy, and how ShowMyTrades reads Real or Demo status from the broker.
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.
Equity Curve
An equity curve plots account value over time. The gap between the balance line and the equity line is where hidden losses live. What public accounts show.
Expectancy
Expectancy is the average profit or loss of one trade: (win rate × avg win) − (loss rate × avg loss). The formula, a worked example, and public accounts.
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.
Forex Pair Correlation
Currency pairs that share a currency move together. Correlation measures how tightly, and it is what turns three separate-looking trades into one position.
Funded Account
A funded account is capital owned by a firm and traded under a rulebook. Evaluation versus funded phase, the rules that end accounts, and real drawdown data.
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.
Margin Call
A margin call is the broker's warning that your equity no longer covers your open positions. The margin level formula, the stop-out sequence, and real data.
Margin Level
Margin level is equity divided by used margin, as a percentage. The formula, the margin call and stop out thresholds, and why it falls fastest when you lose.
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.
Moving Average
A moving average is the mean price over the last N periods, recalculated each bar. What SMA and EMA compute, and why lag is the defining property, not a flaw.
MT4 Investor Password
The MT4 investor password is a read-only credential: it shows balance, equity and every trade, but it cannot open, modify or close a position, or withdraw.
Myfxbook
Myfxbook is a forex analytics and community platform: traders connect an MT4 or MT5 account and it publishes the statistics on a public, shareable page.
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.
Prop Firm
A prop firm puts its own capital at risk through traders under a rulebook. How evaluations, profit splits and loss limits work, and what real drawdowns show.
Recovery Factor
Recovery factor is net profit divided by maximum drawdown: return earned per unit of decline. Here is the formula, the bands, and where to find the inputs.
Regulated Broker
A regulated broker operates under a financial authority that enforces segregated funds, leverage caps and compensation schemes. What that does not cover.
Retransmission
Retransmission is the share of network packets that had to be sent again. Why it reads stability better than ping, and what a rising rate does to execution.
Risk of Ruin
Risk of ruin is the probability of losing a set share of your capital before your edge arrives. The formula, the sizing table, and what thousands of accounts show.
Risk-Reward Ratio
Risk-reward is reward per unit risked, and it sets the win rate you need to break even. The table, the formula, and what public ShowMyTrades accounts run.
Server Latency
Server latency is the round-trip time between your terminal and the broker's trade server. Why it converts into slippage, and how retransmission exposes a bad link.
Sharpe Ratio
The Sharpe ratio is average return divided by the volatility of those returns. Here is the formula, how we compute it per trade, and why our median is 0.05.
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.
Sortino Ratio
The Sortino ratio replaces total volatility with downside deviation. Here is the formula, the modelling choice inside it, and why we do not publish one.
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.
Standard Deviation
Standard deviation measures how far a single trade lands from your average trade. Here is the formula we use, net of costs, and how to read it on thousands of accounts.
Stop Loss
A stop loss is a pre-committed exit order that closes a losing trade at a set price. Types, why it is not a guarantee, and what thousands of real accounts show.
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.
Terminal Ping
Terminal ping is the round trip between a MetaTrader terminal and the broker's trade server. What good and bad look like in ms, and how it becomes slippage.
Third-Party Verification
Third-party verification means an independent party reads the results straight from the broker, and the trader has no step where they can edit the record.
Time-Weighted Return
Time-weighted return compounds sub-period returns so deposits and withdrawals drop out. The formula, how it differs from Abs. Gain, and public accounts.
Track Record
A track record is the documented history of a trading account. What it must contain, how long it has to run to carry evidence, and what real accounts show.
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.
Trend Following
Trend following buys strength and sells weakness, taking many small losses to catch a few large wins. Why the payoff structure matters more than the win rate.
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.
Volatility
Volatility is the dispersion of returns around their average, measured with standard deviation. It is not risk by itself, but it decides what a lot size means.
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.