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.

Order abbreviations change the filled volume

FOK and IOC matter when the full requested amount is unavailable. Model: request 0.50 lot; only 0.30 can immediately fill on permitted terms. The symbol supports the selected policy, and quantity is the only obstacle.

Scroll sideways to see the full diagram

Order abbreviations change the filled volumeIOC fills 0.30 lot and cancels 0.20. FOK cannot fill all 0.50, so nothing executes. With assumed price risk of 200 PLN per lot, IOC gives 60 PLN rather than the planned 100 PLN.Requested: 0.50 lot. Available: 0.30.IOC: available part fills0.30 filled / 0.20 cancelledFOK: incomplete quantity → no fill0.00 filled / 0.50 unfilledIOC model: 0.30 × 200 PLN = 60 PLNThat is 60% of planned exposure.
The volume policy affects execution; filled volume determines exposure.

The planned 0.50 lot would lose 0.50 × 200 = 100 PLN from the specified price move. Actual IOC gives 0.30 × 200 = 60 PLN. The unfilled 0.20 lot under IOC does not wait for later completion. Read the confirmed volume first, then calculate exposure. Another policy could handle the remainder differently. Do not infer FOK/IOC from an ECN or Market Maker label.

Model assumptions: Same price, one moment of availability, only the stated 0.30 lot. Hypothetical price loss for the specified move: 200 PLN per lot; no fees or slippage. Mechanism source: MetaQuotes — Order Properties: volume execution policies. An original educational example, not current market data.

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 SEC guide describes orders in U.S. securities markets. MetaTrader 5 documents its own trading operations; the available order types, triggers and execution policies depend on the instrument and provider. Similar names do not make the rules identical.

SL — stop-loss
A protective order triggered at a specified level. Its execution price can differ, so a standard stop-loss does not guarantee the exact loss.
TP — take-profit
A take-profit instruction requests closing at a specified target. In MT5, its trigger depends on the position side and instrument; the actual net result also depends on execution and costs.
BE (B/E) — break-even
The break-even point; "move to BE" commonly means moving the stop-loss to the entry price. Fees, financing and adverse execution can still leave a net loss.
TS — trailing stop
A mechanism that updates the stop-loss as price moves favourably under its distance rule. In MT5 it runs in the terminal: if the terminal stops running, updates stop, while the last placed stop-loss remains on the server.
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 or zones where a move previously stalled, used to identify possible support or resistance. Price can pass through them; a label does not guarantee that the next move will stop.
TF — timeframe
The time interval represented by a candle, such as M1 (one minute), H1 (one hour) or D1 (one day). Changing it aggregates the price observations differently; it does not by itself establish a more reliable trading 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
A label for a break of a selected structural high or low, often used in the direction of an identified trend. The selected swings and confirmation rule must be stated; the label does not prove that the trend will continue.
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.

It is worth being straight about this: BOS and ChoCh come from a newer, internet-era school of describing market structure and are often used loosely, without one agreed definition. The foundation underneath them, 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.

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 2:1", never as a lone multiplier.
DD — drawdown; ATH — all-time high
Drawdown is a decline from a peak in the chosen balance or equity series, measured as money or a percentage. State the series, period and treatment of deposits and withdrawals. ATH is its highest recorded value over the stated history.
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 a conventional unit used for an FX price change; fractional-pip quotes can be finer. A lot expresses volume using the symbol's contract size. Check the specification rather than equating a pip with the minimum tradable tick.
equity / balance
Balance records booked account operations, while equity reflects current valuation. In MT5, credit and separately booked or blocked components can also enter the calculation; an open position does not freeze balance.

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 to calculate and interpret drawdown 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
U.S. nonfarm payroll employment measured in the BLS establishment survey, commonly discussed as the monthly change. It is part of the Employment Situation release and differs from the household survey used for the unemployment rate; earlier estimates can be revised.
CPI — Consumer Price Index
A consumer-price index for a specified country and basket. For U.S. CPI, state the series and whether the number is an index level, monthly change or annual change; the release is not a rule predicting the dollar's direction.
FOMC — Federal Open Market Committee
The Federal Reserve committee responsible for monetary-policy decisions; it holds eight regularly scheduled meetings each year and other meetings as needed.

Check which release a calendar abbreviation refers to, its publication time and measurement period. NFP, CPI and FOMC describe different information; knowing the labels does not establish the direction or timing of a currency reaction.

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 percentage point, so "hiked by 25 bp" means a rise of a quarter of a percentage 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. This is not pedantry: one abbreviation read the wrong way can leave you with a position opened in the opposite direction.

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. Use the list to check whether the abbreviation has the same meaning in the discussion and in your platform.
  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 "reward:risk = 2:1" (two units of planned reward for one unit of planned risk), 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. Record the release time and what is being published; a calendar does not identify a guaranteed weekly volatility maximum.
  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.