Trader abbreviations glossary — SL, TP, BE, R:R and the rest

Your first evening on a trading forum can feel like reading a telegram in an unfamiliar alphabet. "Went long on the S/R retest, SL under the LL, TP at the prior HH, and if we get a BOS I will add." For someone two weeks into the market that is a string of letters with no meaning, yet each abbreviation carries a simple idea. The jargon is a real barrier — not because it hides difficult knowledge, but because nobody explains it in order. Below I break these abbreviations into layers: orders, market structure, metrics, trading style, macro and forum slang.

Position management — SL, TP, BE, trailing stop

This is the layer you see most often, because it touches every open trade. Each abbreviation names either a type of order or a decision about a position. The U.S. market regulator (the SEC) and the MetaTrader 5 documentation define them in the same way — only the colloquial naming differs.

SL — stop-loss

A protective order that closes the position at a predetermined price when the market moves against you, capping the loss.

TP — take-profit

An order that realises the gain, closing the position automatically once price reaches a chosen level.

BE / BU — break-even / break-up

The break-even point; "move to BE" means shifting the stop-loss to the entry price, after which the trade cannot turn into a loss.

TS — trailing stop

A moving stop that follows price toward profit at a set distance and never steps back.

pending — pending order (limit / stop)

An order placed in advance at a specific level; a limit waits for a better price, a stop triggers on a break.

partial close

Closing part of a position while leaving the rest on the market, usually after the first target.

The pair that causes the most confusion is SL and TP — they define how much you risk and how much you aim to win before you click "buy". I lay out the mechanics of both in a piece on the difference between a stop-loss and a take-profit, and the way a moving stop behaves in the article on how a trailing stop works. A concise reference also sits in the stop-loss glossary entry on forexmechanics.com.

Market structure — S/R, TF, HH/HL/LH/LL, BOS, ChoCh

The second layer describes how a trader reads the chart before an order. These are price-action abbreviations — they sound technical, but behind them sit simple observations about highs, lows and levels.

S/R — support and resistance

Price levels where the move repeatedly stalled; support below price slows declines, resistance above price slows advances.

TF — timeframe

The time unit of a single candle — from M1 (one minute) through H1 and H4 to D1 (one day); the higher the timeframe, the stronger the signal.

HH / HL / LH / LL — successive highs and lows

Higher high, higher low, lower high, lower low; HH with HL marks an uptrend, LH with LL a downtrend.

BOS — break of structure

The moment price breaks a previous high or low and confirms the existing trend.

ChoCh — change of character

The first sign of a possible reversal — a series of higher lows followed by a lower low, or the reverse.

setup / pullback / retest

A setup meets the strategy's conditions, a pullback is a counter-move within a trend, a retest is a return to a broken level.

Honestly: BOS and ChoCh come from a market-structure school popular in recent years and are often used loosely, without one binding definition. The foundation, however, is classic — support, resistance and the sequence of highs and lows. I show the full method in the guide on how to draw support and resistance.

"The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary." — Alexander Elder, Trading for a Living, Wiley, 1993.

Metrics and risk — reward-to-risk, DD, P/L, equity

The third layer is the numbers you use to measure results. Here precision of notation matters most, because these abbreviations end up in the journal and in tax records.

reward-to-risk ratio

The planned gain relative to the amount risked; write it as a proportion, e.g. "reward-to-risk 1:2", never as a lone multiplier.

DD — drawdown; ATH — all-time high

DD is the fall in account value from the last peak (the ATH) to a trough, as a percentage; it shows how deep a losing run the account survived.

P/L — profit and loss

"Floating P/L" is the unrealised result on an open position, while "realised P/L" is already booked after closing.

pip / lot

A pip is the smallest standard unit of change in a pair's price, a lot is the unit of position size.

equity / balance

Balance is the account total without open positions; equity adjusts that total for the result of open positions.

Where a pip comes from I explain in the piece on what a pip is, and the differences between position sizes in the article on micro, mini and standard lots. How deep a drawdown is still normal I cover in the article on maximum drawdown.

Trading style and macro — scalping, swing, NFP, CPI, FOMC

The fourth and fifth layers are two vocabularies of context: the first says how long you hold a position, the second says which events can shake it.

scalping

Trading on a very short horizon — positions last from seconds to a few minutes, with many trades per day.

day trading

Opening and closing positions within a single session, without carrying them into the next day.

swing

Medium-term trading — positions held from a few days to a few weeks.

position

Position trading on the longest horizon — weeks and months, often with a fundamental trend in mind.

hawkish / dovish

Hawkish describes a central bank inclined to tighten and raise rates; dovish, one inclined to ease and cut them.

NFP — Non-Farm Payrolls

The monthly U.S. report on employment outside agriculture; one of the sharpest market movers.

CPI — Consumer Price Index

A measure of inflation; a reading above expectations usually shifts rate expectations and the dollar.

FOMC — Federal Open Market Committee

The Federal Reserve committee that sets U.S. interest rates; it meets eight times a year.

Even if you trade purely on technicals, it pays to know when NFP, CPI or an FOMC meeting is due. The reaction to that data can invalidate the cleanest chart setup within seconds.

Forum slang — bull, bear, longs, shorts, bp

The last layer is the most deceptive: it looks like terminology while it is colloquial shorthand invented for convenience in conversation. You need to understand it to follow the discussion, but it is better to avoid it in your own writing.

long / short

A long profits when price rises, a short when price falls; in chat a bare letter is easily confused with a stop or a lot.

bull / bear

A bull stance bets on rising prices, a bear on falling ones; hence "bull market" and "bear market".

longs / shorts

Slang names for positions: "longs" are long positions, "shorts" are short positions — informal and, on their own, ambiguous.

bp — basis points

Hundredths of a percentage point; one hundred basis points equal one percent, so "hiked by 25 bp" means a quarter point.

I say this plainly, because it matters for a beginner: these abbreviations are informal and ambiguous. A lone letter sometimes means short, sometimes a stop; slang names for positions blur with lots. Among friends that does no harm, but in analysis, in a journal, and in a question to a more experienced person, write out "long position" or "short position". I lay out the difference in the article on a long versus a short position. Clear language is not pedantry — a misunderstanding costs real money.

What to do tomorrow

1. Build your own three-column cheat list. Write down only the abbreviations you actually met this week on the chart and in chat; in the second column put the plain meaning, in the third one sentence in your own words. Writing from memory fixes it far better than reading someone else's list.
2. Review your trading journal for how you record risk. Check that you note the reward-to-risk relation as a readable proportion, for example "1:2", rather than a lone multiplier. If you use colloquial shorthand, replace it with unambiguous wording — six months from now you will thank yourself.
3. Set SL and TP on your next demo position. Before you click "buy" or "sell", enter specific stop-loss and take-profit levels and count how many pips separate each from the entry. That turns abstract abbreviations into numbers on the account and forces you to think about risk before the trade.
4. Check the macro calendar once a week. Look up the dates of the next NFP, CPI and FOMC meeting and mark them in your weekly plan, even if you trade purely on technicals. The point is to avoid holding an open position at the most volatile moment of the week.
5. Ask about each new forum abbreviation instead of guessing. When someone uses shorthand you do not know, ask for the full term in a single question — most traders are happy to explain, and you avoid a costly misunderstanding born of guessing informal slang.