Trading is full of jargon. Here’s a survival kit, grouped by category.
Price & Quotes
| Term | Full form / meaning |
|---|
| LTP | Last Traded Price — the most recent transaction price |
| OHLC | Open, High, Low, Close (for a given period) |
| VWAP | Volume-Weighted Average Price — avg price weighted by volume traded |
| Bid | Highest price a buyer is willing to pay |
| Ask / Offer | Lowest price a seller is willing to accept |
| Spread | Ask − Bid. Tight = liquid stock, wide = illiquid |
| Tick | Smallest price increment (₹0.05 for most NSE stocks) |
| Circuit / Upper-Lower Circuit | Daily max % move allowed (5/10/20%). Trading halts if hit |
| 52W High / Low | Highest / lowest price in the last 52 weeks |
| ATH / ATL | All-Time High / Low |
Order & Position
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Long | You own / bought, profit if price ↑ |
| Short | You sold first hoping to buy back lower (intraday only in cash) |
| Square off | Close an open position |
| MTM | Mark-to-Market — your unrealized P&L as of current LTP |
| P&L | Profit and Loss |
| SL | Stop Loss |
| TP / Target | Take Profit price |
| R:R | Risk:Reward ratio (e.g., risk ₹100 to make ₹300 = 1:3) |
| CMP | Current Market Price |
| Avg / Averaging | Adding to a losing position to lower average buy price (dangerous) |
Product Types (broker-specific labels)
| Code | Full | Meaning |
|---|
| CNC | Cash and Carry | Delivery — you actually own shares, no leverage |
| MIS | Margin Intraday Square-off | Intraday only, leveraged, auto-closed by 3:20 PM |
| NRML | Normal | Overnight F&O positions |
| BO | Bracket Order | Entry + SL + Target as one bundle (mostly discontinued post-SEBI) |
| CO | Cover Order | Entry + compulsory SL |
| GTT | Good Till Triggered | Order sits until your trigger price hits (good for swing trades) |
Market Participants & Flows
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| FII / FPI | Foreign (Portfolio) Investors |
| DII | Domestic Institutional Investors |
| Promoter | Founders / controlling shareholders |
| Retail | Individual non-institutional investors |
| OI | Open Interest — # of outstanding F&O contracts |
| PCR | Put-Call Ratio — sentiment indicator |
Fundamentals (the investing side)
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| EPS | Earnings Per Share = Net Profit / # shares |
| P/E | Price-to-Earnings ratio = Price / EPS. Lower = “cheaper” (in theory) |
| P/B | Price-to-Book ratio |
| ROE | Return on Equity — profit ÷ shareholder equity |
| ROCE | Return on Capital Employed |
| D/E | Debt-to-Equity ratio |
| Mcap | Market Capitalization = price × total shares outstanding |
| EBITDA | Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortization |
| CAGR | Compound Annual Growth Rate |
| DPS / Dividend Yield | Dividend per share / yield % |
Mcap categories (SEBI-defined, India)
| Category | Rank by mcap |
|---|
| Large-cap | Top 100 |
| Mid-cap | 101 – 250 |
| Small-cap | 251+ |
Corporate actions
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Dividend | Cash payout to shareholders |
| Bonus | Free additional shares (e.g., 1:1 doubles your share count, halves price) |
| Stock split | Same as bonus economically — share count up, price down proportionally |
| Buyback | Company buys its own shares back |
| Rights issue | Existing shareholders get to buy new shares at a discount |
| Ex-date | First day stock trades without the entitlement (dividend/bonus) |
Sentiment / Slang
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Bull / Bullish | Expecting prices to rise |
| Bear / Bearish | Expecting prices to fall |
| Rally | Sustained upmove |
| Correction | 10–20% drop from recent high |
| Crash / Bear market | >20% drop |
| Pump | Sudden suspicious upmove (often manipulation) |
| Dump | Sudden sell-off |
| Whipsaw | Price flipping back and forth, triggering SLs |
| FOMO | Fear Of Missing Out — chasing a stock that already ran |
| HODL | Hold On for Dear Life (crypto-origin, but used everywhere) |
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