School-agnostic entries: what buy means, what a derivative is, how to read an order book. Valid for Hurst, Wyckoff, and any other approach.
Menu → Encyclopedia → Concepts — You are at the first encyclopedia layer: shared vocabulary. Use the Trading map to see the full vertical; for guided routes go to Fundamental paths.
Fundamental paths — start here
If you are new, do not pick a school yet. Follow the three rings in order:
| Medal | Level | Hub |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Beginner | |
| Silver | Intermediate | |
| Gold | Advanced |
Full overview: Fundamental paths.
Encyclopedia — dedicated areas
| Area | What you find | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Concepts ← you are here | Buy, timeframe, trend, liquidity… | First steps, neutral definitions |
| Stocks, ETFs, bonds, Forex, commodities, and derivatives | Before choosing what to trade | |
| Contract, premium, chain, IV/RV, surface, parity, assignment, strategies and Greeks | From a first contract to professional nonlinear-risk reading | |
| Specification, point-in-time data, biases, costs, OOS, robustness and monitoring | To design or assess a repeatable strategy without confusing a simulation with a track record | |
| Orders, books, routing, costs, and post-trade | Before turning an idea into a live order | |
| Sizing, exposure, leverage, drawdown, and risk of ruin | Before deciding how much capital to expose | |
| Asset allocation, dependencies, rebalancing, returns, benchmarks, and attribution | To build a governable portfolio and assess it on comparable bases | |
| VaR, Expected Shortfall, scenarios, portfolios, liquidity and resilience | After the foundations, to read the full system | |
| Capital, concentration, contributions, beta, Greeks, duration and DV01 | After aggregate measurement, to read exposures and factors | |
| RSI, MACD, ATR, Bollinger… | How to use indicators | |
| Systematic term index | Look up what a word means | |
| Bias, emotions, discipline | The human factor in every discipline | |
| Plan, checklist, process | How to build a method | |
| Entities, permissions, assets, compliance, and fraud | Before depositing or entrusting data and orders | |
| Bios and «Start» paths | Choosing a tradition to follow |
Market Cycles (separate menu) = Hurst theory (Cyclic theory), traditions and operational techniques: Hurst tradition, Wyckoff tradition, Methodologies.
If you are new to trading
Follow the same order as the Trading map:
- Trading: what it is and how it works — definition, orders, costs, risk and the visual Zero path;
- Bronze path — the extended curriculum for vocabulary, prices, orders and risk;
- Markets and instruments — distinguish exposure, contract and venue;
- Instrument types — understand what you hold or trade;
- Orders, execution and market microstructure — understand what you send, how it is matched, and which costs or post-trade risks remain;
- Risk management — connect the budget, size, exposure, and capital survival;
- Portfolio construction and performance — combine exposures and measure outcomes without confusing returns, cash flows, and risk;
- Technical analysis — read price and context;
- Methodologies — choose a school only after the basics, without mixing its rules.
Hurst, Wyckoff and the other traditions are later, autonomous paths, not the encyclopedia's mandatory entry point.
Operations and positions
| Entry | Summary |
|---|---|
| Buy and sell | |
| Long and short | |
| Stop loss and take profit |
Markets, execution, and costs
| Entry | Summary |
|---|---|
| Verified hub: exposures, contracts, venues, and risks | |
| Verified hub: lifecycle, order types, matching, routing, costs, and settlement | |
| Source-checked visual chapter: planned risk, sizing, leverage, drawdown, and ruin | |
| Source-checked visual chapter in 25 nodes, from policy to attribution | |
| Source-checked visual second ring in 13 nodes | |
| Source-checked visual third ring in 14 nodes | |
| Economic exposure distinguished from the vehicle | |
| Ownership, debt, fund shares, and derivatives | |
| Corporate ownership interests | |
| Exchange-traded funds, NAV, replication, and costs | |
| Debt, coupons, yield, and risks | |
| Currency pairs and OTC/listed instruments | |
| Physical, spot, futures, and ETPs | |
| Calls, puts, strikes, premiums, and expiry | |
| Methodology, weights, divisor, and return variants | |
| Spot (cash) market | |
| Futures, options, CFDs — overview | |
| Futures contracts | |
| Daily settlement, expiry, cash settlement, and delivery | |
| Sign convention, fair value, convergence, and basis risk | |
| Term structure, shift, twist, and curvature | |
| Local curve regimes without directional shortcuts | |
| Two legs, timing, recalibration, and costs | |
| Proxies, decomposition, and measurement limits | |
| Contract for difference | |
| Liquidity | |
| Bid-ask spread | |
| Mid price | |
| Market order | |
| Limit order | |
| Trigger and limit as distinct instructions | |
| From decision to settlement | |
| DAY, GTC, IOC, FOK, and venue variants | |
| Passive instruction with rulebook-defined handling | |
| Position-reduction constraint for supported products | |
| Queues, allocation, and executed quantity | |
| Display quantity, reserve, replenishment, and priority | |
| Venues, internalisation, and the order path | |
| Clocks, timestamps, and path segments | |
| Slippage | |
| Movement attributable to the execution programme | |
| Spread, fees, slippage, impact, and opportunity cost | |
| Time-weighted benchmark and execution algorithm | |
| Searching for liquidity across venues, time, and aggressiveness | |
| Benchmark, price, fill, and speed | |
| Duty and policy, not a guaranteed price | |
| Order book | |
| Market maker | |
| Matching engine | |
| Distinct post-trade functions |
Reading methodologies
| Entry | Summary |
|---|---|
| Volume, supply/demand, Wyckoff | |
| Systematic and quant strategies |
Reading the chart
| Entry | Summary |
|---|---|
| OHLC candlestick | |
| Timeframe | |
| Trend | |
| Support and resistance | |
| Volatility | |
| Trading volume |
Analysis
| Entry | Summary |
|---|---|
| Moving average | |
| Market cycle |
Market integrity
Market abuse and manipulation separates an unusual event from an investigation based on data, context, and the applicable rule. It connects pump and dump, spoofing, layering, and wash trading without turning a signal into proof.
Sources
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Introduction to Investing, Investor.gov.
- Cyclepedia, Editorial coverage matrix, version 1.3, 2026-08-03; specialist sources are declared in the individual linked entries.