​$5K Club — Topstep Traders who have withdrawn $5,000 or more from a funded account.
​b-Shaped Profile — Market profile pattern dominated by selling; signals long liquidation.
​Brokers — Intermediaries who execute orders for commissions.

Busting a Trade — Voiding a trade due to errors or exchange rule violations.

Cannonball — Adding to a losing position as it goes against you. Don’t do this.

Contract Size — Number of units in a futures contract (e.g., 1,000 barrels of crude oil).

Covering Shorts — Buying back contracts to close short positions.

Delta (Futures) — Order flow measurement: contracts traded on the offer (positive) minus contracts traded on the bid (negative).

Delta Divergence — Price moving one direction while delta grows in the opposite direction.

DOM (Depth of Market) — A price ladder showing bids and offers at specific prices. Used for execution.

Excess High — A high characterized by a series of single-print profiles.

Excess Low — A low characterized by a series of single-print profiles.

​Fat-Finger — Accidental order entry error (e.g., buying 10 contracts when you meant to buy 1).

FOMC — Federal Open Market Committee. Sets US monetary policy. Learn more.

Flipping the Ticket — Buying when you meant to sell, or vice versa.

Hedge — Offsetting risk with an opposite position in a different market or contract month.

Iceberg — A large resting order that doesn’t disclose its actual size.

Indicator — A math-based tool used to analyze market conditions.

Kerfuffle — Coming to the markets unprepared. Also: a commotion caused by conflicting views.

Liquidating Longs — Selling to realize profits or cut losses on a long position.

Locals — Floor traders who traded for their own account, not as brokers.

Long — Buying a contract with the expectation that price will rise.

Lots / Cars / Contracts — Units of trade. All mean the same thing.

Moron Trade — Adding more to a losing position. Putting “more-on.”

Naked Point of Control (NPOC) — A previous volume point of control that hasn’t been re-tested during regular trading hours.

Open Interest — Total contracts carried over and not closed from previous sessions.

Opening Range — Per Hoag: the first minute of regular trading hours.

P-Shaped Profile — Market profile pattern dominated by buying; signals short covering.

Point of Control (POC) — The most visited price during the previous day’s regular trading hours.

​Regular Trading Hours (RTH) — Old floor pit trading hours. For ES: 8:30 AM – 3:15 PM CT.

Revenge Trade — An impulsive trade taken after a loss to try to “make it back.”

Shoulder Tap — A Risk Manager’s request to address a performance or behavior issue.

Short — Selling a contract with the expectation of buying it back at a lower price.

Short in the Hole — Holding a short position at a bad location (e.g., near the day’s low).

Size — The quantity of contracts traded.

Slippage — Execution at a different price than expected. Common in fast markets. Only occurs with market orders.

Spoofing — Placing fake orders to manipulate other traders. Illegal and prohibited.

Spread — The difference between buy and sell price, or between different products/contract months.

“Spoos” — Slang for E-mini S&P 500 futures (ES). Tracks the S&P 500 Index.

The TILT — The real-time aggregate positions, sentiment, and bias of all Topstep Traders.

Tick — The minimum price increment a contract can move.

Volume — Total number of contracts traded in a session.

Volume Point of Control (VPOC) — The price where the most volume was traded during the previous session.