Glossary
Every term and acronym on this site, in plain English. The same explanations pop up wherever you see a dotted underline.
Basis Point · also: bp, bps, bips
One hundredth of one percent (0.01%). Used for small changes in rates.
A basis point is 0.01%. So 100 basis points equal 1%. People use basis points to talk clearly about small changes in interest rates, yields, and fees.
Bearish · also: bear
Expecting prices to go down.
Being bearish means you think prices will fall. A 'bear market' is a long stretch of falling prices. Like bullish, it is an opinion that can be wrong.
Benchmark · also: the S&P 500 line, baseline
A yardstick used to judge whether an investment did well or badly.
A benchmark is what you compare results against. In this app, every bot is compared with simply buying and holding SPY, a fund that tracks the S&P 500. If a bot does worse than that, doing nothing would have been better.
Bid-Ask Spread · also: spread, bid, ask
The small gap between the highest buy offer and the lowest sell offer.
The bid is the most a buyer will pay right now. The ask is the least a seller will accept. The gap between them is the spread, and it is a hidden cost of trading.
Bond · also: fixed income, note
A loan you make to a government or company that pays you interest.
A bond is a loan. You lend money to a government or a company, and they promise to pay you interest and give your money back on a set date. Bonds are usually steadier than stocks, but their prices still move, especially when interest rates change.
Broker · also: brokerage, broker-dealer
A company that lets you buy and sell investments in a real account.
A broker, or brokerage, is the company that holds your real investment account and places your trades. This app is not a broker and never connects to one. If you copy a trade, you do it yourself in your own broker's app.
Bullish · also: bull
Expecting prices to go up.
Being bullish means you think prices will rise. A 'bull market' is a long stretch of rising prices. Feeling bullish is an opinion, not a guarantee.
Cash Account
A brokerage account where you can only trade with money you have fully paid in.
A cash account means you pay for everything with your own money. You cannot borrow from the broker. It is the simplest and safest kind of account for beginners, but you must follow settlement rules.
Cash Floor
A rule that a bot must always keep some money in cash.
The cash floor is a safety rule in this app. Each bot must keep a minimum amount of its fake money in cash and cannot invest all of it. This limits how much can be lost at once.
Close Price · also: close
The last regular trading price of the day, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The close price is the final price when regular trading ends at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Charts and daily changes are usually based on closing prices.
Confidence
How sure the bot says it is, from 0% to 100%. Not a promise.
Confidence is a number from 0% to 100% showing how strongly the bot leans toward its plan. It is the bot's own estimate, not a chance of success. A high number can still be wrong.
CPI (Consumer Price Index) · also: inflation, Consumer Price Index
A monthly measure of how fast everyday prices are rising (inflation).
The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, tracks the prices of everyday things like food, rent, and gas. When CPI rises fast, that is high inflation. Inflation news can affect interest rates and bond prices.
Diversification
Spreading money across many investments so one bad pick hurts less.
Diversification means not putting all your eggs in one basket. If you own many different investments, one bad one will not sink your whole account. It lowers risk, but it cannot remove it.
Dividend
Cash a company or fund pays its owners, usually every few months.
A dividend is a share of profits that a company pays to its stockholders. Funds also pass along dividends and bond interest. Dividends are not guaranteed and can be cut at any time.
Drawdown · also: max drawdown
How far an account has fallen from its highest point.
Drawdown measures a drop from a peak. If an account grew to $1,000 and then fell to $800, the drawdown is 20%. It helps you see how painful the bad stretches were.
Duration
A number showing how much a bond's price may move when interest rates change.
Duration is measured in years. As a rough rule, if rates rise 1%, a bond fund with a duration of 5 may drop about 5%. Higher duration means more sensitivity to rate changes.
EDGAR · also: Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval
The SEC's free public database of company filings and reports.
EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval. It is the SEC's free website where anyone can read company reports. Some bots here use EDGAR filings as one of their inputs.
ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) · also: exchange-traded fund, fund
A basket of many investments that trades like a single stock.
An exchange-traded fund, or ETF, holds many stocks or bonds at once. You buy and sell it during the trading day, just like a stock. One ETF can spread your money across hundreds of companies.
Expected edge
How much better than the average fund a model expects something to do, in percentage points. It's an estimate from past patterns, often wrong, and small.
The Jev Signals bot ranks 45 funds using market-data patterns that were tested on five years of past prices, plus Jev's reading of the news. The expected edge is its best guess of how much better than the average fund each one will do over about a month. On past data these guesses were right slightly more often than chance: useful for ranking, but far from certain.
Expense Ratio · also: fund fee
The yearly fee a fund charges, shown as a percent of your money in it.
The expense ratio is what a fund charges each year to run. It is taken out of the fund automatically, so you never see a bill. Lower fees leave more of the return for you over time.
Fed (Federal Reserve) · also: Federal Reserve, central bank
The U.S. central bank. It sets a key short-term interest rate.
The Federal Reserve, or 'the Fed,' is the central bank of the United States. It raises or lowers a key short-term interest rate to try to keep prices stable and jobs strong. Its decisions can move both stock and bond prices.
Fill · also: fill price, execution
When an order actually goes through, and the price it went through at.
An order is 'filled' when the trade actually happens. The fill price is the price you really got. In this app, paper trades fill at the next market open price.
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) · also: Federal Reserve Economic Data
A free database of economic numbers, like interest rates, run by the St. Louis Fed.
FRED stands for Federal Reserve Economic Data. It is a free database run by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The bots here use it for data like Treasury yields and inflation.
Good-Faith Violation · also: GFV
Selling something bought with unsettled cash before that cash has settled, in a cash account.
In a cash account, a good-faith violation happens when you buy with money that has not settled yet, then sell before it settles. Brokers track these. Too many can lead to limits on your account, often for 90 days.
Hypothetical · also: simulated
Made-up or simulated, not real. Hypothetical results did not happen with real money.
Hypothetical results show what might have happened, not what did happen with real money. Every profit and loss number in this app is hypothetical. Real trading could turn out very differently.
Index Fund · also: passive fund
A fund that simply copies a market index instead of picking winners.
An index fund buys all, or nearly all, the stocks in an index, like the S&P 500. It does not try to beat the market; it tries to match it. Index funds often have low fees.
Inflation
When prices for goods and services rise over time, so money buys less.
Inflation means your dollar buys a bit less each year. High inflation often pushes interest rates up, which can hurt bond prices. It is commonly measured with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Interest Rate Risk · also: rate risk
The risk that bond prices fall because interest rates rise.
When interest rates go up, older bonds with lower rates become less attractive, so their prices fall. This is interest rate risk. Long-term bonds are hit harder than short-term bonds.
Jev · also: TypeSafe, evidence check
An AI model from TypeSafe that tags headlines and checks the bots' evidence.
Jev is an AI model made by TypeSafe. In this app, it tags news headlines (for example, as good or bad news for a company) and scores how well a bot's plan is backed by evidence. Jev can be wrong, like any AI.
Large-Cap · also: large capitalization, big company
A very big company, measured by the total value of all its shares.
'Cap' is short for market capitalization, the total value of all of a company's shares. Large-cap companies are the biggest ones. They tend to be steadier than small companies, but they can still fall a lot.
Limit Order
An order to buy or sell only at your chosen price or better.
A limit order sets the worst price you will accept. A buy limit will only fill at your price or lower. A sell limit will only fill at your price or higher. If the price never gets there, the order may never fill.
LLM (Large Language Model) · also: large language model, AI model, chatbot
An AI that reads and writes text, like the one that drafts bot plans.
A large language model, or LLM, is an AI trained on huge amounts of text. It can write explanations and suggestions that sound confident. It can also be wrong, make things up, or miss important facts.
Margin · also: margin account, leverage
Borrowing money from your broker to invest. It can multiply losses.
Margin is a loan from your broker that lets you buy more than your cash allows. Gains get bigger, but so do losses, and you pay interest. You can lose more than you put in. This app never uses margin.
Market Order
An order to buy or sell right away at the best price available.
A market order tells your broker to trade now at whatever the current price is. It almost always gets filled quickly. The downside is that the final price can be a bit different from the price you saw.
Momentum · also: trend
The idea that prices moving one way may keep moving that way for a while.
Momentum is a trend-following idea: what has been rising may keep rising for a while, and the same for falling. It often works for a time and then stops suddenly. Some bots here use momentum signals.
Moving Average · also: MA, 50-day, 200-day
The average price over recent days, updated each day to smooth out bumps.
A moving average takes the average closing price over a set number of days, like 50 or 200. Each day, the oldest day drops off and the newest day is added. It helps show the general direction of a price without the daily noise.
Nasdaq
A major U.S. stock exchange, home to many technology companies.
The Nasdaq is a large U.S. stock exchange. Many technology companies list their shares there. 'Nasdaq' can also mean an index of the stocks that trade on it.
NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) · also: New York Stock Exchange
A major U.S. stock exchange where many large companies' shares trade.
The New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, is one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world. It is where buyers and sellers of many large companies' shares are matched.
Open Price · also: open
The first trading price of the day when the market opens.
The open price is the first price a stock trades at when the market opens, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time for regular trading. It can be quite different from the day before's close, especially after big news.
Options · also: calls, puts
Contracts giving the right to buy or sell a stock at a set price by a date.
Options are contracts that let you buy or sell a stock at a certain price before a certain date. They are complex and can lose all their value quickly. This app does not trade options.
P/L (Profit and Loss) · also: P&L, profit and loss, gain/loss
How much money was made or lost. In this app, it is always fake money.
P/L stands for profit and loss. It shows how much an account or trade gained or lost. Every P/L number in this app is hypothetical, based on fake money.
Paper Trading · also: simulated trading, practice trading
Practice trading with fake money, so nothing real is gained or lost.
Paper trading means pretending to buy and sell using fake money and real prices. It lets you learn without risking savings. Results can look better than real trading, because there are no real emotions, delays, or costs.
Position · also: holding
How much of one investment you own.
A position is your holding in one stock or fund. For example, owning 10 shares of a fund is a position in that fund. Keeping each position small limits damage if one goes wrong.
Realized Gain or Loss
A gain or loss that is locked in because you sold.
A realized gain or loss happens when you sell. The result is final for that trade. In real accounts, realized gains can have tax effects, so talk with a tax professional.
Rebalancing
Buying and selling to bring your mix of investments back to your plan.
Over time, some investments grow faster than others, and your mix drifts. Rebalancing means trimming what grew too big and adding to what shrank. It keeps your risk close to what you planned.
Risk Meter
A simple gauge showing how risky a bot or investment is, from low to high.
The risk meter is a quick visual guide in this app. It shows roughly how much a bot's holdings tend to swing. Low risk does not mean no risk.
S&P 500 (Standard & Poor's 500) · also: S&P, the market, SPY
A list of about 500 large U.S. companies, used to track the overall stock market.
The Standard & Poor's 500, or S&P 500, is an index of about 500 large U.S. companies. People use it as a quick way to see how the U.S. stock market is doing. You cannot buy the index itself, but you can buy funds, like SPY, that copy it.
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) · also: Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. government agency that regulates stock markets and protects investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, makes and enforces rules for stock markets, brokers, and companies that sell shares to the public. Public companies must file reports with the SEC.
Short Selling · also: shorting, short
Betting a price will fall by selling borrowed shares. Losses can be unlimited.
Short selling means borrowing shares, selling them, and hoping to buy them back cheaper later. If the price rises instead, your loss has no ceiling. It is an advanced, risky strategy. The bots here never short.
Slippage
The gap between the price you expected and the price you actually got.
Slippage happens because prices move between when you decide and when your order fills. If you copy a bot's trade by hand later, your price will likely differ from the bot's paper fill.
SPY · also: SPDR S&P 500 ETF
The ticker for a popular ETF that tracks the S&P 500.
SPY is the ticker for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, one of the oldest and largest ETFs. It tries to match the S&P 500. This app uses buying and holding SPY as the yardstick for every bot.
Stock · also: share, equity
A small piece of ownership in a company.
When you buy a stock, you own a tiny slice of a company. If the company does well, the stock price may go up. If it does badly, the price may go down, and you can lose money.
T+1 (Trade Date Plus One) · also: settlement, T+1 settlement
Most U.S. stock trades finish settling one business day after the trade.
T+1 means 'trade date plus one business day.' When you buy or sell most U.S. stocks and ETFs, the money and shares officially change hands the next business day. The U.S. moved to T+1 on May 28, 2024.
Ticker · also: symbol, ticker symbol
The short code used to look up a stock or fund, like SPY.
A ticker, or ticker symbol, is a few letters that stand for a stock or fund. You type it into your broker's search box to find it. Double-check the ticker, because similar codes can belong to very different things.
Traffic Light · also: signal, Buy/Hold/Sell
Green means Buy, Yellow means Hold, Red means Sell. Always shown with a word and icon.
Each plan card shows a traffic light so you can read it at a glance. Green means Buy, Yellow means Hold, and Red means Sell. The word and an icon always appear too, so you do not need to rely on color alone.
Treasury · also: T-bill, T-note, T-bond, Treasuries
A bond issued by the U.S. government.
Treasuries are loans to the U.S. government. They come in different lengths, from a few weeks to 30 years. They are widely seen as among the safest bonds, but their prices still go up and down when interest rates change.
Unrealized Gain or Loss · also: paper gain, paper loss
A gain or loss on something you still own. It can still change.
An unrealized gain or loss is 'on paper' only. You still own the investment, so the number changes as the price moves. It becomes realized only when you sell.
Volatility
How much and how fast a price swings up and down.
Volatility measures how bumpy a price is. A very volatile stock can jump or drop a lot in a short time. Higher volatility means more risk, because the value can fall quickly.
Yield
The income an investment pays, shown as a percent of its price.
Yield tells you how much income an investment pays each year compared with its price. For bonds, yield goes up when the price goes down, and the other way around. A higher yield often comes with more risk.
Yield Curve · also: inverted yield curve
A chart comparing interest rates on short-term and long-term government bonds.
The yield curve lines up the yields of U.S. Treasury bonds from short to long time frames. Usually long-term bonds pay more than short-term ones. When short-term rates are higher than long-term rates, the curve is called 'inverted,' and people watch that closely.