Glossary

Discover our platform glossary

Trading vocabulary grouped into eight themes, written to be read in order or jumped into by curiosity. Every definition links back to the Javlot pages where the term shows up.

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Account & Money

The basic units your broker account is measured in.

5 terms

Equity

The live value of your broker account, including the floating profit or loss of open positions.

See the term

Balance

The cash sitting on your broker account, before the profit or loss of any open positions.

See the term

Margin

The portion of your equity the broker sets aside as collateral while a position is open.

See the term

Leverage

The ratio between the size of a position and the deposit your broker requires to open it.

See the term

Lot Size

The unit a forex order is measured in. One standard lot equals 100,000 units of the base currency.

See the term

Markets & Instruments

The asset classes a strategy can trade, and what makes each one move.

7 terms

Gold (XAUUSD)

Gold quoted against the US dollar, XAUUSD: a deep, liquid market that trades almost around the clock and moves on rates, the dollar and fear.

See the term

Silver (XAGUSD)

Silver quoted against the US dollar, XAGUSD: gold's smaller, more volatile sibling, pulled by industry as much as by investors.

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Forex

Currency pairs such as EURUSD or GBPJPY: the largest and most liquid market in the world, open around the clock five days a week.

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Crypto

Bitcoin, Ether and other crypto assets, traded as contracts on the broker account: priced every hour of every day, and far more volatile than currencies.

See the term

Indices

Stock market indices such as the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 or the DAX, traded as one contract that tracks a whole market.

See the term

Energy

Crude oil and natural gas, traded as contracts on the account: prices driven by OPEC, inventories, weather and geopolitics.

See the term

Multi-asset

A strategy whose trade history spans more than one asset class: metals and currencies, or indices and crypto, in the same book.

See the term

Trading Mechanics

How orders are placed, priced, and filled on a broker account.

11 terms

Pip

The smallest standard price increment on a currency pair, usually the fourth decimal.

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Spread

The gap between the bid and ask price of an instrument, paid implicitly on every entry.

See the term

Order Type

The instruction sent to the broker that tells it how and when to fill an order.

See the term

Limit Order

A pending order that fills only at the specified price or a better one, never worse.

See the term

Market Order

An order that fills immediately at the best available price the broker offers right now.

See the term

Stop Loss

An exit order that closes a losing position the moment a chosen price level is hit.

See the term

Take Profit

An exit order that closes a winning position the moment a chosen price level is reached.

See the term

Slippage

The gap between the price you asked for on an order and the price the broker actually filled it at.

See the term

Basis point (bps)

A price gap written as a fraction of the price, so the same execution quality reads the same on every instrument.

See the term

Execution

How the broker turns an order into a real fill: speed, routing, and the price you actually get.

See the term

Position

A single entry held on the broker account, with a direction, a size, and a current floating result.

See the term

Risk Management

The terms that describe how much you can lose, and how you limit it.

5 terms

Risk Profile

Javlot's four-step scale, from conservative to extreme, describing how much a strategy is willing to lose to make its gains.

See the term

Drawdown

The drop in account equity from a peak to the trough that follows, expressed as a percent of the peak.

See the term

Risk-Reward Ratio

The ratio of a position's potential loss to its potential gain, set by the stop loss and take profit.

See the term

Position Sizing

The rule that decides how large each position should be, given account equity and risk per position.

See the term

Risk per Trade

The slice of account equity a single position can lose if its stop loss hits.

See the term

Performance Metrics

The numbers used to describe a strategy after the fact.

11 terms

Profit

The gain or loss on a closed position, once spreads, commissions, and swaps are taken out.

See the term

Total Profit

The sum of every closed position result over a period, winners and losers combined.

See the term

Gains

The sum of every winning position in a period, before losing positions are subtracted.

See the term

Loss

The realized loss on a closed position, or the sum of every losing position across a period.

See the term

Win Rate

The percentage of closed positions that ended in profit over a given period.

See the term

Profit Factor

Gross winning amount divided by gross losing amount over a period. Above 1 means net positive.

See the term

Sharpe Ratio

Return per unit of volatility: average return above a baseline, divided by the standard deviation of those returns.

See the term

Sortino Ratio

Like Sharpe, but only counts downside volatility, not upside swings.

See the term

Z-Score

A statistical measure of whether a strategy's win and loss streaks are truly random.

See the term

GHPR (Geometric Holding Period Return)

The compounded average return per position, more honest than a simple arithmetic average.

See the term

Expectancy

The average expected profit or loss per position, computed from win rate and average win and loss size.

See the term

Strategy Styles & Timeframes

How algorithms approach the market and over what horizon.

11 terms

Ultra-scalping

The fastest style on the platform: positions opened and closed within seconds, in volume, where execution quality decides the result.

See the term

Scalping

A short-horizon style that opens and closes positions within minutes, targeting small per-position moves.

See the term

Day Trading

A style that opens and closes positions within the same trading day, with no overnight exposure.

See the term

Swing Trading

A style that holds positions across several days to a few weeks, targeting mid-horizon moves.

See the term

Position Trading

A long-horizon style that holds positions for weeks to months, riding multi-week trends.

See the term

Time Horizon

The stretch of time a strategy is built to be judged over: weeks, months, or a year and more.

See the term

Trend Following

An approach that buys what is rising and sells what is falling, riding moves until they reverse.

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Mean Reversion

An approach that fades extremes, betting that price will return to its average after stretching too far.

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Breakout

An approach that enters once price crosses a defined level, riding the move that follows.

See the term

Grid Trading

A ladder of pending orders placed at regular intervals, designed to catch repeated price oscillations.

See the term

Martingale

A position-sizing scheme that doubles up after each loss, betting that the next position will recover everything.

See the term

Brokerage Models

How different broker types route and price your orders.

3 terms

ECN Broker

A broker that routes client orders directly into an electronic communication network of liquidity providers.

See the term

STP Broker

A broker that passes client orders straight through to its liquidity providers without taking the other side.

See the term

Market Maker

A broker that takes the other side of client positions in-house, instead of routing them externally.

See the term

Verification

How a strategy is checked before and after it goes live.

2 terms

Live-Tracked

A strategy where every position is recorded on a real broker account the moment it opens.

See the term

Backtest

A simulation that runs a strategy on historical data to see how it would have performed.

See the term

Where to go next

See how Javlot worksBrowse our strategiesSee our strategy standards

Glossary entries are educational. They describe how a term is commonly used in automated forex investing, including on the Javlot platform. They are not a personalized recommendation and not a forecast. Past performance does not guarantee future results.