Education / Reference
Trading Glossary
- The phase where smart money quietly buys (accumulates) positions at favorable prices, often in ranges or after liquidity sweeps, before a markup phase.
- Price closing beyond a previous significant high in an uptrend or low in a downtrend, confirming trend continuation.
- General term for Order Block, Breaker Block, or Mitigation Block — zones where institutional orders are believed to reside.
- Formed when price breaks and closes beyond a previous order block, invalidating it and flipping the zone into opposite polarity (support to resistance or vice versa).
- The first break of market structure against the prevailing trend — an early signal of a potential reversal or trend change.
- A bullish order block or area where buying pressure previously emerged. Price is expected to respect it as support on a retest.
- Strong, impulsive price movement with large candles or high volume that shows conviction. It is used to validate BOS, FVG creation, and order blocks.
- The phase where smart money sells (distributes) positions at premium prices, typically after markup and before a markdown.
- Two or more swing points at nearly the same price level that act as strong liquidity pools targeted for sweeps.
- A three-candle inefficiency where the high or low of the middle candle is not overlapped, creating an imbalance that price may later fill.
- Another term for a Fair Value Gap: a price inefficiency left by aggressive buying or selling that the market may later fill.
- A false move designed to trigger retail stops or trap traders before the real directional move, such as a false breakout above resistance.
- Liquidity resting inside the current range, often from the stops of early entrants, that may be swept before expansion.
- Clusters of stop-loss orders, pending orders, or equal highs and lows that institutions can use to enter or exit efficiently.
- A rapid price move that takes out buy-side or sell-side liquidity before reversing and can support the actual directional move.
- Another term for Change of Character (CHOCH): the moment trend direction changes through a structural break.
- Markup is the uptrend phase after accumulation. Markdown is the downtrend phase after distribution.
- A smaller zone inside a larger order block where price has already partially reacted and that can act as secondary support or resistance.
- A Fibonacci retracement zone, typically 0.618 to 0.705, inside an impulsive move that can offer an entry aligned with institutional order flow.
- The last opposing candle or candles before strong displacement, believed to contain unfilled institutional orders. It can act as future support or resistance.
- The actual buying and selling activity in the market. SMC traders infer it through price action and liquidity behavior.
- Price above equilibrium is considered premium and price below equilibrium discount. Smart money frameworks look to buy at discount and sell at premium.
- A candle showing strong rejection through a long wick at a key level that may become a high-probability reversal zone.
- Institutional traders, hedge funds, and banks whose large capital can materially move markets.
- A bearish order block or area where selling pressure previously emerged that may act as resistance on a retest.
- Another term for a Fair Value Gap: an area of low trading activity or inefficiency to which price may return.