Trading Glossary
The language of institutional price action and options flow, defined the way Pushing Profits actually uses it. Every term links to a full guide.
- Break of Structure (BOS) — A close beyond the most recent swing high or low in the direction of the prevailing trend — objective evidence of trend continuation.
- Breaker Block — A failed order block that flips polarity: the zone that once launched a move gets broken, then acts as support or resistance for the move in the opposite direction.
- Change of Character (CHoCH) — The first structural break against the prevailing trend — an early, objective warning that control may be shifting from one side to the other.
- Dark Pool Prints — Large equity trades executed in private venues and reported after the fact — institutional accumulation and distribution made visible at specific price levels.
- Dealing Range — The active range between the swing low and swing high that price is currently trading within — the reference frame for equilibrium, discount/premium zoning, and internal/external liquidity.
- Displacement — An impulsive, one-sided price move with large full-bodied candles that breaks structure and leaves imbalances behind — the footprint of institutional urgency.
- Equilibrium, Discount & Premium (EQ) — The 50% midpoint of a dealing range (equilibrium) divides it into discount (below EQ — value for buyers) and premium (above EQ — value for sellers): buy discount, sell premium.
- External Liquidity — The liquidity pools resting beyond the current dealing range's high and low — old highs and lows where breakout orders and stops concentrate, the market's expansion targets.
- Fair Value Gap (FVG) — A three-candle imbalance where price moved so impulsively that a gap remains between the first candle's wick and the third's — an inefficiency price tends to revisit.
- Fibonacci Retracements for Institutional Trading — Using the fib tool anchored to structural swings — breaker origin to extreme — to measure equilibrium (50%), discount/premium zones, and optimal trade entry areas.
- Gamma Exposure (GEX) — The aggregate hedging pressure options dealers face as price moves — positive gamma pins price to big strikes, negative gamma accelerates moves away from them.
- How Market Makers Manipulate Liquidity — The engineered sequence — build the trap, spring it, deliver price — by which large participants induce retail orders, consume them, and move price between liquidity pools.
- Inducement — Engineered bait — a minor pullback level or obvious pattern that tempts early entries and tight stops, creating the liquidity institutions consume before the real move.
- Internal Liquidity — The liquidity resting inside the current dealing range — fair value gaps, order blocks, and minor swing points between the range high and low.
- Liquidity Pool — A price area where stop losses and pending orders cluster — above equal highs, below equal lows, and beyond obvious support/resistance — making it a magnet for institutional price delivery.
- Liquidity Sweep — A quick run through a liquidity pool — beyond an obvious high or low — that triggers resting stops and orders, then reverses, revealing institutional accumulation rather than genuine breakout.
- Market Maker Model — A trading framework that reads price as the output of market makers engineering liquidity — accumulating positions, inducing retail entries, sweeping stops, and delivering price between liquidity pools.
- Market Structure — The sequence of swing highs and swing lows that defines trend: higher highs and higher lows are bullish structure, lower highs and lower lows are bearish structure.
- Market Structure Shift (MSS) — A displacement-driven break of structure against the prior trend, confirming that the reversal sequence — sweep, shift, retrace, continue — is underway.
- Options Flow — The real-time stream of options transactions — size, side, aggressiveness, and positioning — used to detect what institutional money is actually doing before price reflects it.
- Options Sweep Orders — Large options orders split across multiple exchanges and filled at market speed — prioritizing immediacy over price, the tape's clearest signature of institutional urgency.
- Order Block — The last opposing candle or consolidation before an impulsive institutional move — a zone where large orders were positioned, expected to act as support or resistance on the retest.
- Smart Money Concepts (SMC) — A price-action methodology built around how institutions accumulate and distribute positions: market structure, liquidity, order blocks, fair value gaps, and displacement.
- Unusual Options Activity (UOA) — Options volume dramatically exceeding a contract's normal levels — especially volume above open interest — signaling fresh institutional positioning ahead of expected moves.