Plain-language definitions for the terms XRILL and trading in general throw around.
77 terms
Risk/Reward Ratio
How much you stand to make versus how much you're risking. A 2:1 R:R means your target is twice as far away as your stop โ XRILL's Trade Plan gate requires at least 2.0 before a setup can pass.
Stop Loss
The price (or premium) where you exit automatically if the trade goes against you โ the line that defines how much you're risking before you ever place the trade.
Take Profit
The price where you plan to exit and lock in a win โ your target premium in the XRILL Trade Plan.
Moving your stop to your entry price once a trade is working, so the position can no longer lose money โ common after a Trim.
Deciding how many contracts or shares to trade based on your account balance and risk-per-trade percentage, not on how confident you feel.
The most you're allowed to lose on a single trade โ your account balance ร your risk-per-trade %. XRILL's Risk Manager blocks any plan that exceeds it.
The decline in your account balance from a recent peak, usually tracked as a percentage.
When multiple independent signals โ trend, a key level, volume, momentum โ all line up in agreement, making a setup more reliable than any single signal alone.
How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving the price. Thin liquidity means wide bid-ask spreads that quietly eat into your edge.
Price levels where an asset has repeatedly reversed or stalled in the past โ support from below, resistance from above.
Volume-Weighted Average Price
The average price an asset has traded at today, weighted by volume โ a common intraday reference level for where price is "expensive" or "cheap."
Trading in the direction the asset is already moving โ e.g. price above the 9/21 EMA for calls, below it for puts.
A specific support, resistance, VWAP, or pre-market price that the market has reacted to before โ where you look for a reaction, not just a random price.
A noticeable increase in trading volume on a candle, signaling real participation behind a move rather than a thin, low-conviction drift.
The price you pay to buy an options contract. One contract always controls 100 shares, so your total cost is premium ร 100 ร number of contracts.
In The Money
An option with intrinsic value โ a call whose strike is below the current price, or a put whose strike is above it.
Out of The Money
An option with no intrinsic value yet โ a call whose strike is above the current price, or a put whose strike is below it. Cheaper, but needs a bigger move to pay off.
At The Money
An option whose strike price is essentially equal to the current price of the underlying.
Zero Days to Expiration
An option expiring the same day it's traded โ high leverage and high decay, often traded with the full premium at risk instead of a price-based stop.
Selling part of a position โ not all of it โ to lock in some profit while letting the rest run, often paired with moving your stop to breakeven.
Exiting a position in stages at multiple price targets, rather than all at once.
The difference between the price you expected to get filled at and the price you actually got โ usually worse in low-liquidity conditions.
The final 0โ100 composite score XRILL computes from your Daily Check-In, Trade Gate, Setup Score, Risk Manager, and Execution Check. 80+ is required to authorize a trade.
The five-question readiness check (market open, trading hours, liquidity, news risk, mental state) that has to clear before you can even evaluate a setup.
The 25-point, five-item confluence checklist (trend, key level, volume, news, R:R) โ 20/25 or better is required to move on to the Trade Plan.
The final five-question gate right before submitting โ confirmation candle, planned entry, stop already placed, within daily loss limit, and trading the plan instead of emotions.
XRILL's final verdict on a session: Authorized means every gate passed and the trade is cleared to execute; Blocked means at least one gate failed, and the reasons are always shown.
The first XRILL gate โ a quick self-check on sleep, focus, emotional state, and discipline before you're even allowed to look at a setup.
Which rung of the Double-Up Ladder your account balance is currently on ($250 โ $500 โ $1,000 โ $2,000 โ $5,000, 5 levels total). This is what the EXP bar on your Dashboard tracks, and it's separate from the two entries below.
Consecutive most-recent sessions that were authorized (cleared all 8 gates), counting back from today. One blocked session resets it to 0 โ see the About page for the full 0 / 1-2 / 3+ breakdown.
The Playbook's real position-sizing framework, from a $250 start cap all the way to $1,000,000 across 12 stages โ much larger in scope than the 5-level Double-Up Ladder, and what actually governs allocation as the account grows.
Three cosmetic badges on the Playbook page (Purple $100k, Rainbow $250k, Prismatic $1M) tied to real account balance milestones โ a separate reward layer from both LVL and the Twelve-Stage roadmap, not a required step in either.
"The House"
The firm quoting the bid and ask on almost every option you trade, and usually the one that sells you the contract. They mostly aren't betting against your direction โ they hedge with shares and earn the spread. You pay the house on every trade through that spread, win or lose; when an option you bought expires worthless, the premium you paid is what they keep.
Traders who borrowed shares and sold them, betting price falls. When your call or long stock rips, part of that fuel is shorts being forced to buy back (a short squeeze) โ their loss is your gain. When your puts pay, you're on the same side as them.
Retail & late money
In stocks, your profit is paid by the next person willing to pay a higher price than you did. Your loss usually means you were that next person โ the late buyer who chased. If you can't name who buys after you, you might be the exit liquidity.
The algorithms
Funds running computer models that trade thousands of times a day on tiny, repeatable edges: spreads, order flow, and predictable human behavior like chasing breakouts and stops clustered at obvious levels. Slippage, stop runs and fake-outs are often where they collect from retail.
Premium sellers
Anyone who writes (sells) options to collect premium โ funds, market makers and some retail. Time decay works for them and against you as a buyer: every day your trade goes nowhere, theta moves money from your contract to the seller.
Where every dollar comes from
Options are zero-sum before fees: every dollar one side makes, the other side loses โ then the house takes its cut on top. Short-term stock trading is close to the same. So every win came out of someone else's mistake, and every loss went to someone with a better plan. XRILL's gates exist to keep you off the paying side.
The house's cut
The gap between what buyers pay (ask) and sellers get (bid). Buy at the ask and sell at the bid immediately, and you lose the spread instantly. On thin options that gap can be 10%+ of the premium โ a cost you pay before the trade even moves.
Jumping straight into another trade to win back a loss โ usually bigger, faster and with no real setup. It's the single most common way a bad day turns into a blown account.
Fear Of Missing Out
Chasing a move because it's already running and you don't want to miss it. FOMO entries are late, have wide stops and poor R:R โ exactly what XRILL's Setup Score is built to catch.
An emotional state (frustration, anger, euphoria) where you stop following your rules. Borrowed from poker. If you notice it, the trade is to walk away, not to click buy.
Taking more trades than your setups justify โ out of boredom, excitement or to force a daily goal. More trades means more fees, more mistakes and more exposure to bad fills.
XRILL's hard stop for the day: after two journaled stop-outs, Start Session locks until midnight Eastern. It exists because the third trade after two losses is where most revenge trading happens.
ฮ ยท Direction & Speed
How much an option's premium is expected to change for every $1.00 move in the underlying stock. Also doubles as a rough real-time estimate of the probability the option finishes in-the-money โ a 0.30 Delta option has roughly a 30% chance of expiring ITM. Higher Delta = moves more like the stock. Lower Delta = cheaper, but needs a bigger move to pay off.
ฮ ยท Acceleration
The rate of change of Delta for every $1.00 move in the underlying. If Delta is speed, Gamma is acceleration โ it's why short-dated, at-the-money options can swing violently in both directions. Peaks for at-the-money contracts close to expiry โ that's exactly when price swings feel the sharpest.
ฮ ยท The Ticking Clock
How much value an option loses each day purely from the passage of time, all else equal. Buyers lose to Theta; sellers profit from it. Decay is not linear โ it accelerates hard in the final 30โ45 days before expiration. The clock is always running against a long option. Short-dated contracts bleed the fastest.
V ยท Volatility Sensitivity
How much an option's premium changes for every 1% change in Implied Volatility (IV). Higher IV inflates extrinsic value; lower IV crushes it โ the dreaded post-earnings "IV crush" can wipe out gains even when the stock moved your way. Beware buying options into binary events (earnings, FDA, Fed) โ you can be right on direction and still lose to IV crush.
ฯ ยท Interest Rate Sensitivity
How much an option's price moves for every 1% change in the risk-free interest rate. The least critical Greek for retail day/swing traders โ it only becomes meaningful for long-dated LEAPS contracts. Safe to ignore for short-dated trading. Worth a glance only if you're holding LEAPS.
Seconds to minutes
In and out fast, harvesting small, high-probability moves โ relies on tight execution and low friction, since commissions/spread eat a bigger share of a small target.
Minutes to hours
Opened and closed within the same session โ no position carried overnight, so no overnight gap risk.
Days to weeks
Holding through the noise of individual sessions to capture a multi-day move โ needs a wider stop and more patience than day trading.
Weeks to years
The longest holding horizon โ built around a broader thesis, largely ignoring day-to-day price action once the position is on.
Weeks to months
Staying with an established directional move for as long as it keeps making higher highs (or lower lows) โ the holding-time cousin of the Trend Following strategy in the Strategy Library above.
Minutes to days
Riding a sharp, high-volume move while it's accelerating โ exits get tighter as the move slows, since momentum trades can reverse fast.
Minutes to weeks
Betting price snaps back toward an average after stretching too far in one direction โ the opposite assumption from trend following.
Entering as price clears a key level with force, on the idea that the move continues โ the holding-time cousin of the specific breakout setups in the Strategy Library above.
Milliseconds to minutes
Capturing a pricing gap between two related instruments or venues โ typically the shortest-held style of all, since the gap itself is what closes.
Trend ยท Either
Trading in the direction of an established trend โ buying dips in an uptrend or selling rallies in a downtrend โ rather than trying to call a top or bottom.
Entering when price pulls back to a key moving average (e.g. the 9 or 21 EMA) inside an existing trend, using the average as dynamic support/resistance.
Joining a move that's already accelerating with strong volume and momentum, betting the current thrust keeps going rather than reverses.
Trend ยท Bullish
The textbook definition of an uptrend in price structure โ each swing high and swing low prints above the last one. Confirms bullish trend alignment.
Trend ยท Bearish
The mirror image for downtrends โ each swing high and swing low prints below the last one, confirming bearish trend alignment.
Breakout & Continuation ยท Either
Entering as price pushes through a well-defined resistance (or support) level with expanding volume, betting the level gives way and price runs.
Waiting for price to break a level, then pull back to retest it as new support/resistance before entering โ trades the confirmation, not the first spike.
Marking the high/low of the first 5โ15 minutes of the session, then trading a break of that range as the day's initial directional signal.
Breakout & Continuation ยท Bullish
A stock gaps up pre-market on news or catalyst and continues higher after the open โ entering with the gap's momentum rather than fading it.
A sharp upward move (the pole) followed by a tight, shallow pullback (the flag) โ entering on a break back to the upside as the pause resolves.
Breakout & Continuation ยท Bearish
The bearish mirror of a bull flag โ a sharp drop followed by a brief upward consolidation, entering short as price breaks back down.
Reversal ยท Bullish
Buying as price reaches a well-established support level and shows signs of holding โ betting the floor holds one more time.
Reversal ยท Bearish
Shorting as price reaches a well-established resistance level and stalls โ betting the ceiling holds and price turns back down.
Reversal ยท Either
Trading the tendency for a price gap (up or down) to eventually retrace back toward where it started โ fading the gap rather than following it.
Betting that price has stretched too far, too fast from its average and is due to snap back โ the opposite instinct from trend following.
VWAP ยท Bullish
Price dips below VWAP intraday, then reclaims it โ entering long as VWAP flips from resistance back to support.
VWAP ยท Bearish
Price rallies up into VWAP from below and gets rejected โ entering short as VWAP holds as resistance.
Context & Events ยท Either
Trading the outsized price and implied-volatility swings around an earnings release โ a distinct, higher-risk regime from normal price action (watch for IV crush post-release).
Only taking an individual-stock setup when the broader index or sector structure confirms the same directional thesis โ a single-name signal is far weaker when it's fighting the tape.