Learn The Lingo 101

Ruzaan du Plooy
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

If you are new to the crypto-community, you have arrived at one of the most informative blogs on medium…well, I hope you think so! I’ve collected a list of terms you need to gain understanding with if you plan on getting a good grip on the cryptocurrency realm.

Definitions (In Alphabetical Order)

Altcoin: A substitute name for “Alternate coin” — Used to describe any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin(BTC) and Ethereum(ETH).

Arbitrage: A successful opportunity due to a price difference for the same currency in two or more exchanges.

Asking price: Selling price.

ATH: “All time high”.

Average Down: Buying coins when the price of said coin is decreasing to average the overall price.

Bagholder: A trader of investor who holds coins until the price becomes close to none, hoping it would go up again.

Bear/Bearish: When the price seems or actually does go down.

Bid price: Buying price

Bid-Ask Spread: Gap between the sell and buy price.

BTD: Buy the dip. Buy low.

Bull/Bullish: Price seems to go up

Day Trading: An act of making profit by trading short-term.

DYOR: Do Your Own Research

Exchanges: There are a number of exchanges including — Bitvo(Canadian), Binance(Hong Kong), Kucoin(Hong Kong), Bithumb(Korea), Bitfinex(USA), Coinbase(USA), Coinone(Korea), Upbit(Korea), Huboi(Hong Kong)

Fiat: Money currency like: USD, KRW, JYP, CYN

FOMO: Fearing of missing out.

FUD: Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. The feeling when you start to see the price of a coin drops and you think “Oh shit, I better get out of this now.” and dump all of your coins. This is usually related to bad news with a coin.

Futures: Contracts that an investor buys/sells at a certain price in the future.

Going long/short: Going long-term/short-term. Another word for hold/flip.

Hedge: An investment strategy aimed at lowering risk.

ICO: Initial Coin Offering: Token producer does pre-sale of tokens before the tokens are available on exchanges to trade. Similar to IPO with stocks.

Limit Order: Buy or sell order at the designated price.

Margin Trading: Borrowing money from others to invest.

Market Order: Buying or selling at the optimal price determined by the masses.

Portfolio: The coins you’ve invested in.

Rally: A period of maintained increases in the prices.

REKT: Bad loss. Derived from “Wrecked”

ROI: Return on investment. Measured in a percentage, it is used to indicate success of investment.

Shill: An act of telling others how great a certain coin is.

Shitcoin: A coin that has no value.

Signals: Another word for sending action (buy/sell).

TA: Technical analysis or trend analysis.

To the moon: A phrase used to indicate the price is going up or that you haven’t given up hope in the coin in questioning.

Volatility: Another word for price fluctuation.

Wallet: A bank account for your coin(s).

Weak hands: An investor who panic-sells during tough days due to emotional stress and pressure.

Whale: A person with a very high budget, therefore is able to manipulate the prices of specific crypto assets.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade