Glossary

Gold priced in US dollars, per troy ounce. XAU is gold, USD is the dollar. A price of 4040.50 means one ounce costs 4,040.50 dollars.

The unit our desk counts results in. On gold we use 1 pip = 0.10 of price, so a move from 4040.00 to 4041.00 is 10 pips. Brokers and tools don't all agree: some call 1.00 a pip, some call 0.01 a pip. Always check which one a number uses.

The smallest price step on the platform. On MT5, gold quoted with two decimals moves in points of 0.01, so 1 pip (0.10) = 10 points. Stop sizes in MT5 settings are often in points, not pips.

Two prices at once. The ask is what you pay to buy; the bid is what you get when you sell. The ask is always a little higher.

The gap between bid and ask, the cost of getting in. On gold it is often 0.10 to 0.40 (1 to 4 pips on our scale) in calm hours, and much wider around news. A new trade starts down by the spread.

How much you trade. One standard lot of gold is usually 100 ounces (the contract size), but check your broker's contract specification. With 100 ounces: a 1.00 move is 100 dollars per lot, one pip (0.10) is 10 dollars per lot, and 0.01 lot is 0.10 dollars per pip.

Leverage lets you control a bigger position than your deposit; margin is the part of your money the broker sets aside to hold it. Leverage makes gains and losses bigger, and leveraged trading can lose more than your deposit.

Buy if you expect price to rise; sell (go short) if you expect it to fall. A short profits when price drops. Both carry the same risks.

Greenwich Mean Time. Every time on this site and in our channel is GMT, so everyone reads the same clock. Convert to your own time zone if needed.

The parts of the 24-hour day when big markets are open: Asia (about 00:00 to 07:00 GMT), London (about 07:00 to 16:00) and New York (about 13:00 to 21:00). Times shift by an hour with daylight saving.

The price where a trade opens. A signal's entry is a plan; your fill can differ a little, especially in fast markets.

An order that closes the trade at a set loss. It belongs where the trade idea is proven wrong, beyond the level, not at a random number of pips. The distance from entry to stop is your risk, 1R.

An order that closes the trade at a set profit. Our bots place it at 2R: twice as far as the stop.

When the stop is moved to the entry price. If price turns back, the trade closes at about zero instead of a loss. Spreads and commission can still make it slightly negative.

A market order fills now at the best available price. A limit order waits for your price (buy below, sell above the current price) and may never fill.

Getting filled at a worse price than you asked for, usually in fast moves or around news. One reason live results trail backtests.

The share of your account you'd lose if the stop is hit. Many careful traders use 0.5% to 1%. At 1%, ten losses in a row cost about 10%; at 10% per trade, the same streak costs about 65%.

Your risk on a trade, used as a ruler. If the stop is 40 pips away, 1R = 40 pips, 1.5R = 60 pips, 2R = 80 pips. A result of +2R means you made twice what you risked; -1R means the stop was hit.

How far the target is compared with the stop. A 40-pip stop and an 80-pip target is 2 to 1, or a 2R target. Higher reward-to-risk needs fewer wins to break even.

The lot size that makes a stop of a given distance cost your chosen risk. Size = risk in dollars ÷ (stop distance × contract size). A wider stop means a smaller size. Try it in the risk calculator.

A fall from a high point of the running total. Max drawdown is the deepest such fall in the whole record. It shows how rough the ride was, which the net result alone hides. Our desk shows it in pips.

Everything won divided by everything lost. Above 1 means more won than lost; 1.5 means 1.50 won for each 1.00 lost. With few trades it swings a lot.

The share of trades that won. On its own it says little: a 40% win rate with 2R wins beats a 60% win rate with tiny wins and big losses.

The average result per trade, in R. Win 40% at +2R and lose 60% at -1R: 0.4 × 2 - 0.6 × 1 = +0.2R per trade, before costs.

All winning pips minus all losing pips. Our main record, because pips don't depend on account size.

Running the rules on past data. Useful to test an idea, but it leaves out real spreads, slippage and nerves, and is easy to over-fit. Backtests don't predict live results.

A broker account with virtual money and real prices. Our bots trade demo accounts, so no real money is at stake and the results are educational.

A program that trades by fixed rules inside MetaTrader. Despite the name, it advises nobody.

One slice of time showing four prices: open, high, low and close. Green closed higher than it opened; red closed lower.

The thin line above or below a candle's body: how far price went and got pushed back.

How much time each candle covers: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 4 hours. Read the higher timeframe for the trend, the lower one for the entry.

Price areas where buyers (support) or sellers (resistance) stepped in before. When one breaks, it often swaps roles.

Higher highs and higher lows (uptrend) or lower highs and lower lows (downtrend). No clear staircase means a range.

Price bouncing between a ceiling and a floor. Trend setups don't apply until it breaks out.

A breakout closes outside a range or level. A fakeout pokes out and closes back inside, trapping the traders who chased it.

A quick run through an obvious high or low, where stop orders sit, followed by a close back inside. Our bots' rule is built on it.

A gap between candle 1's high and candle 3's low (or the reverse) after a fast move. Price often returns into it; sometimes it reacts, sometimes it slices through.

The last opposite candle before a fast move. Some traders watch it as a zone where price may react on its return.

Proof that a level is holding, such as a strong reaction candle that has closed. Waiting for it costs some price but avoids many failed trades.