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 | |
| Fraud, red flags, due diligence | Before depositing or trusting | |
| 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 |
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.