Trading has its own vocabulary, and it can feel like everyone assumes you already know it. Here's a quick reference for terms you'll run into constantly, in plain English.
Bid and ask: the "bid" is the price you can sell at, the "ask" is the price you can buy at. The small gap between them is the spread.
Balance: the total money in your account, not counting any trades you currently have open.
Equity: your balance plus or minus the current value of any open trades. This number moves in real time while a trade is open.
Margin: the portion of your account that's set aside as a deposit to keep a trade open. It's not lost money — it's "held" while the position is active.
Leverage: a tool that lets you control a larger trade than your account balance alone would allow.
Long / short: "going long" means you bought, expecting the price to rise. "Going short" means you sold first, expecting the price to fall so you can buy back cheaper later.
Pip: the smallest standard price movement in most currency pairs.
Stop-loss / take-profit: an automatic instruction that closes your trade at a preset price, either to limit a loss or to lock in a profit, so you don't have to watch the screen constantly.
Keep this guide handy — you'll likely come back to it while reading everything else.
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