The Investing Glossary

Educational definitions only — not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

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13F filing

The quarterly SEC disclosure of large institutions' US equity holdings — public, free, and 45 days stale by design. Learn more →

52-week high/low

The highest/lowest price of the past year — widely watched reference levels for strength and weakness. Learn more →

B

Backtest

Replaying a precise set of trading rules over historical data to see how they would have behaved. Evidence about the past, never a promise about the future. Learn more →

Base

A sideways range where a stock consolidates after a decline or advance — the quiet structure from which breakouts and breakdowns resolve. Learn more →

Bear market

A prolonged broad decline, conventionally 20%+ from a peak, marked by lower highs and lower lows. Learn more →

Bear-market rally

A sharp counter-trend advance inside a downtrend — often fast and convincing, and often (though not always) failing at resistance. Learn more →

Beta

A measure of how much a stock tends to move relative to the overall market; a beta of 1.5 has historically moved ~1.5× the market's swings.

Blow-off top

A climactic, near-vertical price surge on extreme volume late in an advance, read in hindsight as buyer exhaustion. Learn more →

Bollinger Bands

Volatility bands drawn around a 20-period average at ±2 standard deviations; they widen and narrow as volatility cycles. Learn more →

Breakdown

The bearish mirror of a breakout: price falling through a well-defined support level.

Breakout

Price clearing a well-defined resistance level, ideally on above-average volume; failed (false) breakouts are common. Learn more →

Bull market

A prolonged broad advance marked by higher highs and higher lows.

C

Candlestick

A chart bar showing open, high, low, and close for a period; its body and wicks encode the session's battle between buyers and sellers. Learn more →

Capitulation

Panic selling on extreme volume near the end of a decline, as remaining holders give up — labeled with confidence only in hindsight. Learn more →

Coach Score

Ticker Coach's 0–100 composite read blending sentiment, technical, fundamental, and news-impact signals — educational conditions, not a recommendation. Learn more →

Consolidation

A pause where price moves sideways in a narrowing or flat range — how trends rest. Learn more →

Correction

A market decline of roughly 10–20% from a peak; sharper than a pullback, shallower than a bear market.

Cup and handle

A continuation base: a long rounded recovery (cup) plus a brief shallow pullback (handle) before a breakout attempt. Learn more →

D

Death cross

The 50-day moving average crossing below the 200-day — a lagging trend confirmation, famously context-dependent. Learn more →

Divergence

Price and a momentum indicator disagreeing — e.g., a new price low while RSI makes a higher low. A caution flag, not a signal. Learn more →

Diversification

Spreading capital across positions so no single outcome dominates results.

Double top / double bottom

An M- or W-shaped reversal built from two tests of the same level, confirmed only when the middle level breaks. Learn more →

Drawdown

The peak-to-trough decline of a portfolio or strategy — the honest risk number in any backtest. Learn more →

E

EPS (earnings per share)

A company's profit divided by its share count — the denominator of the P/E ratio.

Exponential moving average (EMA)

A moving average weighting recent prices more heavily — faster to react, quicker to whipsaw. Learn more →

F

Flag

A brief counter-trend drift on shrinking volume after a sharp move (the pole) — a continuation pattern. Learn more →

Free cash flow

Cash a business generates after operating costs and investment — harder to massage than reported earnings. Learn more →

Fundamental analysis

Studying the business behind the ticker — revenue, cash flow, balance sheet, competitive position — to judge value. Learn more →

G

Gap

A price jump between one session's close and the next's open, leaving a blank zone on the chart.

Golden cross

The 50-day moving average crossing above the 200-day — the bullish mirror of a death cross, equally lagging. Learn more →

H

Head and shoulders

A three-peak reversal pattern (higher high on fading participation, then a failed lower high) completed only by a neckline break. Learn more →

L

Liquidity

How easily an asset trades without moving its price; thin liquidity amplifies volatility.

M

MACD

Moving Average Convergence Divergence — a trend-momentum indicator built from the gap between two EMAs. Learn more →

Market capitalization

Share price × shares outstanding — the market's total valuation of a company.

Moving average

The average closing price over a rolling window (commonly 50 or 200 days), smoothing noise into a readable trend line. Learn more →

O

Overbought / oversold

Momentum readings stretched to the upside or downside (e.g., RSI above 70 / below 30). Descriptions of speed, not instructions. Learn more →

P

P/E ratio

Price divided by earnings per share — what the market charges per dollar of profit; cheapness alone proves nothing. Learn more →

Paper trading

Simulated trading with no real money — the out-of-sample test a backtest can't provide. Learn more →

Pullback

A short counter-trend dip within an uptrend, often studied around rising moving averages. Learn more →

R

Relative volume (RVOL)

Today's volume versus the stock's own recent average — the context that makes any volume number meaningful. Learn more →

Resistance

A price area where selling has repeatedly stopped advances; broken resistance is watched as potential support. Learn more →

Retest

Price returning to a broken level from the other side — the moment that often decides whether a breakout was real. Learn more →

Risk/reward

The ratio between what a plan risks (entry to invalidation) and what it targets — defined before, not after.

RSI

Relative Strength Index — momentum on a 0–100 scale; extremes and divergences are widely watched caution flags. Learn more →

S

Sector rotation

Capital shifting between industry groups as the economic cycle turns.

Sentiment analysis

Scoring the mood of news and other text about a stock — coverage and consistency at machine scale, with structural blind spots. Learn more →

Simple moving average (SMA)

A moving average weighting all closes equally — the standard for the widely watched 50- and 200-day lines. Learn more →

Squeeze

Bollinger Bands compressing to unusually tight levels — a volatility condition that says a larger move has often followed, direction unknown. Learn more →

Support

A price area where buying has repeatedly stopped declines; broken support is watched as potential resistance. Learn more →

T

Technical analysis

Studying price and volume behavior to weigh probabilities — reading conditions and defining risk, not predicting. Learn more →

Trend

The prevailing direction of price — higher highs and higher lows (up) or the reverse (down); flat means no trend to follow. Learn more →

Triangle

A consolidation with converging boundaries (ascending, descending, or symmetrical) that resolves with a boundary break. Learn more →

V

VIX

The market's index of expected S&P 500 volatility — spikes accompany panics, which is why it's called the fear gauge. Learn more →

Volatility

The size of an asset's price swings; it clusters and cycles rather than staying constant. Learn more →

Volume

Shares traded in a period — the participation number that gives price moves their significance. Learn more →

W

W bottom / M top

Bollinger-framed double bottoms/tops comparing the character of two extremes — did the second test reach the band? Learn more →

Watchlist

The set of stocks you track — in Ticker Coach, the driver of daily analysis, briefings, and alerts. Learn more →

Whipsaw

A signal that reverses shortly after triggering — the chronic cost of mechanical rules in choppy markets. Learn more →