Alternative Markets.AI

A

Altcoin An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin — the term is short for "alternative coin" and covers thousands of distinct digital assets.

American Depositary Receipt (ADR) An American Depositary Receipt (ADR) is a certificate issued by a US bank that represents shares in a foreign company and trades on US stock exchanges in US dollars.

Annualized Rate An annualized rate rescales a short-period measurement — typically one quarter — to show what the figure would equal if that exact pace continued for a full year.

Arbitrage Arbitrage is the practice of simultaneously buying and selling the same — or essentially identical — asset in different markets to profit from a price difference between them.

B

Backwardation Backwardation is a market condition where futures prices are lower than the current spot price, often signaling tight near-term supply or unusually strong immediate demand.

Barrel (bbl) A barrel is the standard unit of volume used to measure and trade crude oil, equal to exactly 42 US gallons, and abbreviated as bbl.

Base Currency The base currency is the first currency listed in a pair — the one being bought or sold, whose value the quoted price directly measures.

Base Effect The distortion in a year-over-year percentage change caused by an unusually high or low reading in the same period twelve months earlier.

Base Metals Base metals are widely used industrial metals — including copper, aluminum, zinc, nickel, and lead — valued primarily for their physical properties in manufacturing and construction rather than for monetary roles.

Basis Point (bp) A basis point is one one-hundredth of one percentage point, equal to 0.01%, used to describe small but meaningful changes in interest rates and yields.

Bear Market A bear market is a broad decline of 20% or more from a recent peak in a stock index or asset price, typically lasting at least two months.

Benchmark A benchmark is a widely accepted reference price, rate, or index used to compare performance or set prices for related assets.

Bid-Ask Spread The bid-ask spread is the gap between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for an asset (the bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept (the ask).

Bid-to-Cover Ratio The bid-to-cover ratio measures total demand at a government bond auction by dividing the value of all bids submitted by the value of bonds actually sold.

Bitcoin Dominance Bitcoin dominance is the percentage of total cryptocurrency market capitalization represented by Bitcoin alone, used as a gauge of Bitcoin's relative weight in the crypto market.

Blockchain A blockchain is a shared digital record of transactions copied across thousands of computers, where each batch of records is permanently linked to the one before it.

Blue Chip A blue chip is a share in a large, well-established company with a long record of stable earnings and a dominant position in its industry.

Bond Yield A bond yield is the annual return an investor receives from a bond, expressed as a percentage of its current market price.

Breakeven Inflation Breakeven inflation is the difference between a nominal bond yield and the equivalent inflation-linked bond yield, representing the market's implied expectation for future inflation.

Brent Crude Brent Crude is the internationally traded oil benchmark priced at the North Sea, used to set the cost of roughly two-thirds of the world's globally traded crude oil.

Budget Deficit The shortfall that occurs in a given period when a government spends more money than it collects in taxes and other revenues.

Building Permits A monthly government count of the number of new residential construction permits approved by local authorities, indicating how much building activity is legally authorized to begin soon.

Bull Market A bull market is a sustained period during which asset prices rise broadly and investor confidence is generally high, most commonly defined as a gain of 20 percent or more from a recent low.

Bushel (bu) A bushel is a unit of dry volume used in US grain markets, equal to roughly 35.2 litres, with grain contracts quoted in cents per bushel.

C

Candlestick Chart A candlestick chart represents each time period as a rectangular bar — the "body" — with thin lines called "wicks" extending above and below, encoding all four OHLC prices visually.

Carry Trade A carry trade is a strategy where a trader borrows in a low-interest-rate currency and invests the proceeds in a higher-interest-rate currency to pocket the rate difference.

Central Bank A central bank is the government-linked institution that manages a country's money supply and interest rates, acting as the financial system's ultimate backstop.

Circulating Supply Circulating supply is the number of units of a cryptocurrency that have been issued and are actively available in the market at a given moment.

Cold Storage Cold storage means keeping the private keys that control a cryptocurrency wallet on a device or medium that is never connected to the internet.

Consensus Estimate A consensus estimate is the average (or median) of all professional analysts' forecasts for a company's upcoming earnings, revenue, or other financial metric.

Consumer Confidence A survey-based measure of how optimistic or pessimistic households feel about their current and near-future financial situation and the broader economy.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) The Consumer Price Index measures how much a fixed "basket" of everyday goods and services costs compared with a chosen base period, expressed as an index number.

Contango Contango is a market condition where futures prices are higher than the current spot price, reflecting the cost of storing and financing a commodity until delivery.

Core Inflation Core inflation is the rate of price increase across the economy after stripping out food and energy prices, which are excluded because they tend to swing sharply from month to month.

Correction A correction is a decline of 10% or more — but less than 20% — from a recent peak in an asset's price or a market index.

Correlation Correlation measures how closely two assets move in relation to each other, expressed on a scale from −1 (perfect opposites) to +1 (perfect mirrors).

Coupon A coupon is the fixed periodic interest payment a bond issuer promises to make to bondholders, usually expressed as an annual percentage of the bond's face value.

Crack Spread The crack spread is the difference between the market price of refined petroleum products — such as gasoline and diesel — and the cost of the crude oil used to produce them, representing the refiner's gross margin.

Credit Rating A credit rating is an agency's published opinion of how likely a borrower — a government, company, or specific bond — is to repay its debt on time and in full.

Credit Spread A credit spread is the difference in yield between a corporate or lower-quality bond and a government bond of similar maturity, representing the extra return investors demand for taking on credit risk.

Cross Rate A cross rate is a currency pair that does not include the US dollar on either side, such as EUR/JPY or GBP/AUD.

Currency Pair A currency pair is a price quote showing how much of one currency it takes to buy one unit of another currency, written as two ticker codes separated by a slash.

Currency Peg A currency peg is a government or central bank policy that fixes its currency's exchange rate to another currency — most often the US dollar — at a set rate.

Current Account A country's broadest record of its economic transactions with the rest of the world, covering trade in goods, services, income, and transfer payments.

Cyclical Stocks Cyclical stocks are shares of companies whose revenues and profits tend to rise and fall in step with the broader economic cycle — expanding in booms and contracting in downturns.

D

Data Revision An official update to a previously published economic data point, reflecting more complete source data, corrected methodology, or both.

Debt-to-GDP Ratio A ratio comparing a government's total debt to the size of its economy, expressed as a percentage, used to gauge how manageable that debt burden is.

Decentralized Exchange (DEX) A decentralized exchange (DEX) is a crypto trading platform that runs on blockchain smart contracts, letting users swap tokens directly with each other without a company holding their funds.

Defensive Stocks Defensive stocks are shares of companies that sell goods or services people buy regardless of economic conditions, giving them relatively stable revenues through booms and recessions alike.

DeFi (DeFi) DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, refers to financial services — lending, borrowing, trading, earning yield — built as open-source code running on a blockchain rather than operated by a traditional institution.

Deflation Deflation is a sustained, broad decline in the general price level across an economy — the opposite of inflation — where the same basket of goods costs less over time.

Depeg A depeg occurs when a stablecoin's market price breaks away from its intended fixed value, trading meaningfully above or below the target — typically $1.00.

Depreciation (Currency) Currency depreciation is the gradual or sudden decline in a currency's exchange-rate value driven by market forces — supply, demand, and sentiment — rather than by official decree.

Devaluation Devaluation is a deliberate, official decision to lower the fixed exchange rate of a pegged currency, making it worth less relative to the currency it is anchored to.

Diffusion Index A statistical measure that calculates the percentage of respondents reporting an increase minus the percentage reporting a decrease, summarizing the direction of change across a group.

Disinflation Disinflation is a slowdown in the rate of inflation — prices are still rising, but more slowly than before — and should not be confused with deflation, where prices actually fall.

Dividend Yield Dividend yield is a company's total annual dividend payment per share divided by its current share price, expressed as a percentage.

Dovish Dovish describes a central bank official or policy stance that favors keeping interest rates low or cutting them, typically to support growth and employment.

Drawdown A drawdown is the percentage decline from an asset's highest recorded price to its lowest point before a new peak is reached.

Duration Duration is a measure of how sensitive a bond's price is to changes in interest rates, expressed in years, where a higher number means greater sensitivity.

E

Earnings per Share (EPS) Earnings per share (EPS) is a company's net profit divided by its total number of outstanding shares, showing how much profit is attributable to each individual share.

Economic Surprise The difference between an economic indicator's actual released value and the consensus forecast that analysts had expected beforehand.

Ex-Dividend Date The ex-dividend date is the cutoff date by which a shareholder must already own a stock in order to receive its next dividend payment.

Exotic Pair An exotic pair is a foreign-exchange pairing of one major currency — typically the US dollar — against the currency of a smaller or emerging-market economy.

F

Face Value Face value is the fixed amount a bond issuer promises to repay the bondholder when the bond reaches maturity, also called par value or principal.

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is the body within the U.S. Federal Reserve that votes on interest rate policy, meeting eight times a year.

Foreign-Exchange Reserves Foreign-exchange reserves are foreign currencies, gold, and other international assets held by a central bank to support its currency, pay external debts, and cushion against financial shocks.

Forward Guidance A central bank's public communication about its likely future policy path, used to shape what businesses, investors, and consumers expect interest rates to do.

Front Month The front month is the futures contract with the nearest upcoming expiration date, and it is typically the most actively traded and widely quoted version of that market.

Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) is the theoretical total market value of a cryptocurrency if every token that will ever exist were already in circulation today.

Futures Contract A futures contract is a standardized legal agreement to buy or sell a specific asset at a set price on a predetermined future date.

Futures Curve A futures curve is a snapshot of prices for the same commodity or asset across multiple future delivery dates, plotted from the nearest month to the farthest.

FX Intervention FX intervention is when a central bank or finance ministry directly buys or sells its own currency in the foreign-exchange market to influence the exchange rate.

G

Gas Fees Gas fees are the charges paid by users to compensate blockchain validators for the computing power required to process and record a transaction or execute a smart contract.

Government Debt The total stock of money a government owes to its creditors, accumulated from all past budget deficits minus any surpluses repaid over time.

Grains Grains are staple cereal and oilseed crops — primarily corn, wheat, and soybeans — traded globally as standardized commodity contracts on exchanges such as the Chicago Board of Trade.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total monetary value of all finished goods and services produced inside a country's borders during a specific period.

Guidance Guidance is a company's own forward-looking forecast — typically for the next quarter or full year — covering metrics like revenue, earnings, or profit margins.

H

Halving A Bitcoin halving is a scheduled event, occurring roughly every four years, that cuts in half the number of new bitcoins awarded to miners for processing transactions.

Hawkish Hawkish describes a central bank official or policy stance that favors raising interest rates or tightening monetary conditions, typically to fight inflation.

Hedging Hedging is the practice of taking an offsetting position in a related asset to reduce the financial risk of an existing exposure, rather than to seek additional profit.

Henry Hub Henry Hub is a natural-gas pipeline interchange in Erath, Louisiana, whose spot and futures prices serve as the primary benchmark for natural gas across the United States.

High-Yield Bond A high-yield bond is a corporate debt security rated below investment grade, offering higher interest payments to compensate investors for greater default risk.

Housing Starts A monthly government statistic counting the number of new residential construction projects on which ground has been broken during the reported period.

Hyperinflation Hyperinflation is an extreme and self-reinforcing surge in prices, conventionally defined as monthly inflation exceeding 50 percent.

I

Index Weighting Index weighting is the method an index uses to decide how much influence each member stock has on the index's overall value.

Industrial Production A monthly index measuring the real output of a country's factories, mines, and utilities, expressed relative to a chosen base period set equal to 100.

Inflation Inflation is a sustained, broad rise in the general price level across an economy, meaning each unit of currency buys less than it did before.

Inflation-Linked Bonds (TIPS) Inflation-linked bonds, known in the US as TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities), are government bonds whose principal value adjusts with the consumer price index.

Initial Public Offering (IPO) An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the first time a private company sells shares of itself to the general public on a stock exchange, transitioning from private to public ownership.

Interest-Rate Differential An interest-rate differential is the numerical gap between the benchmark interest rates of two countries, and it is one of the primary forces pushing currencies higher or lower against each other.

Inverted Yield Curve An inverted yield curve occurs when short-term interest rates on bonds rise above long-term rates, flipping the normal upward slope of the yield curve.

Investment Grade (IG) Investment grade (IG) refers to bonds rated BBB− or higher (by S&P and Fitch) or Baa3 or higher (by Moody's), signaling a relatively low risk of default.

J

Jobless Claims Jobless claims are weekly filings by newly unemployed US workers applying for government unemployment insurance benefits, serving as a high-frequency pulse on the labor market.

L

Lagging Indicator A lagging indicator is an economic or market measure that changes only after the broader economy or market has already shifted direction, confirming a trend rather than predicting it.

Leading Indicator An economic or financial measure that historically tends to turn direction before the broader economy does, giving early warning of expansion or contraction.

Leverage Leverage is the use of borrowed capital to control a position worth more than the funds a trader has actually committed.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been cooled to around minus 162 degrees Celsius until it becomes a liquid, shrinking its volume so it can be loaded onto tanker ships and transported across oceans.

Liquidation Liquidation is the forced closure of a trader's open position by a broker or exchange when losses have consumed enough of the margin deposit to breach a required threshold.

Liquidity Liquidity describes how easily and quickly an asset can be bought or sold in the market without causing a significant change in its price.

Lockup Period A lockup period is a contractual window — typically following an IPO or similar transaction — during which company insiders are prohibited from selling their shares.

London Metal Exchange (LME) The London Metal Exchange (LME) is the world's primary marketplace for trading base-metal futures and options contracts, setting benchmark prices used by miners, manufacturers, and traders globally.

M

Major Pairs Major pairs are the small group of currency pairs that each include the US dollar and account for the largest share of global foreign exchange trading volume.

Margin Margin is the good-faith deposit a trader puts up to open a position larger than the cash they actually hold in their account.

Market Capitalization Market capitalization is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares, calculated by multiplying the current share price by the total number of shares in existence.

Maturity Maturity is the date on which a bond's life ends and the issuer repays the full face value to whoever holds the bond at that time.

Mining Cryptocurrency mining is the process by which specialized computers compete to solve mathematical puzzles, earning newly created coins as a reward while simultaneously securing the network.

MMBtu (MMBtu) MMBtu stands for one million British thermal units, the standard energy-content unit used to price and trade natural gas in North American markets.

Moving Average (MA) A moving average is a continuously recalculated average of an asset's price over a set number of past periods, used to smooth out short-term fluctuations and reveal the underlying trend direction.

N

Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) is the monthly count of paid workers on US employer payrolls, excluding farm workers, private household employees, and nonprofit organization employees.

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OHLC (OHLC) OHLC stands for Open, High, Low, and Close — the four prices that summarize all trading activity within a single time period on a price chart.

OPEC and OPEC+ (OPEC) OPEC is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group of major oil-producing nations that coordinates production levels to influence global oil prices; OPEC+ extends that group to include additional producers led by Russia.

Open Interest Open interest is the total number of futures or options contracts that are currently active — meaning they have been opened but not yet closed, settled, or exercised.

P

Participation Rate The labor force participation rate is the percentage of the working-age population that is either employed or actively looking for work.

Payout Ratio The payout ratio is the percentage of a company's earnings paid out as dividends to shareholders, calculated by dividing dividends per share by earnings per share.

PCE Price Index (PCE) The PCE Price Index measures inflation by tracking what American consumers actually spend across the entire economy, and it is the Federal Reserve's officially preferred inflation gauge.

Pip A pip is the smallest standardized price increment used to measure movement in a currency pair, typically the fourth decimal place in most pairs.

Policy Rate A policy rate is the benchmark short-term interest rate that a central bank sets directly, which then anchors borrowing costs throughout an entire economy.

Precious Metals Precious metals are naturally scarce metallic elements — chiefly gold, silver, platinum, and palladium — valued for their rarity, durability, and roles in both finance and industry.

Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E) The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) compares a company's share price to its earnings per share, expressing how many years of current profits the market price represents.

Producer Price Index (PPI) The Producer Price Index measures average price changes that domestic producers receive for their output, tracking inflation at the factory or farm gate before goods reach consumers.

Proof of Stake (PoS) Proof of Stake is a blockchain security method in which participants lock up a quantity of cryptocurrency as collateral to earn the right to validate transactions, replacing computation with committed capital.

Proof of Work (PoW) Proof of Work is a security method used by some blockchains in which computers must perform intensive calculations to earn the right to add new transaction records.

Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) A monthly survey-based index that measures whether business activity in manufacturing or services is expanding or contracting, using 50 as the dividing line.

Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is an economic theory holding that, over the long run, exchange rates should adjust so identical goods cost the same in every country when priced in a common currency.

Q

Quantitative Easing (QE) Quantitative easing (QE) is a central-bank policy where the bank creates new money to buy financial assets — typically government bonds — to lower long-term interest rates and stimulate the economy.

Quantitative Tightening (QT) Quantitative tightening (QT) is when a central bank shrinks its balance sheet by letting bonds mature without reinvesting, or by selling them outright, pulling money out of the financial system.

Quote Currency The quote currency is the second currency listed in a pair — the measuring stick that expresses the price of one unit of the base currency.

R

Real Exchange Rate The real exchange rate adjusts a country's nominal (face-value) exchange rate for inflation differences between two countries, giving a truer picture of international competitiveness.

Real GDP Real GDP is GDP adjusted for inflation, measuring how much an economy's actual output changed rather than just how much prices rose.

Real Yield Real yield is the return on a bond after subtracting the expected or actual inflation rate, showing what an investor earns in purchasing-power terms.

Recession A recession is a significant, widespread decline in economic activity lasting more than a few months, typically marked by falling output, rising unemployment, and reduced spending.

Reserve Currency A reserve currency is a currency held in large quantities by governments and central banks worldwide to conduct international trade, pay debts, and anchor their own exchange rates.

Retail Sales A government-reported monthly measure of the total receipts that retailers collect from selling goods to consumers, used as a gauge of consumer spending strength.

Risk-On / Risk-Off (RORO) Risk-on / risk-off (RORO) describes the broad market regime in which investor sentiment simultaneously pushes money toward higher-risk assets (risk-on) or pulls it toward safer ones (risk-off).

Roll Yield Roll yield is the gain or loss an investor experiences when an expiring futures contract is replaced — "rolled" — into the next available contract at a different price.

S

Safe Haven A safe haven is an asset that historically holds or gains value during periods of market stress, when investors are fleeing riskier positions.

Satoshi (sat) A satoshi (sat) is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to one hundred-millionth of a single bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC).

Seasonal Adjustment A statistical technique that removes predictable, calendar-driven patterns from economic data so that the underlying trend is easier to see.

Seasonality Seasonality is the tendency of a price, economic indicator, or market activity level to follow a repeating pattern tied to the calendar — the same months or quarters showing similar behavior year after year.

Sector A sector is one of the broad industry groupings used to classify every publicly traded company so investors and analysts can compare similar businesses.

Self-Custody Self-custody means an individual directly holds and controls the private keys to their own cryptocurrency, rather than trusting a third party such as an exchange to hold them.

Settlement Price A settlement price is the official price assigned to a futures contract at the end of each trading day, used to calculate profits, losses, and margin requirements for all open positions.

Share Buyback A share buyback is when a company uses its own cash to purchase its outstanding shares from the open market, reducing the total number of shares in circulation.

Short Selling Short selling is the practice of selling an asset the seller does not currently own, with the intention of buying it back later at a lower price to profit from the decline.

Short Squeeze A short squeeze is a rapid, self-reinforcing price rally triggered when traders who bet on falling prices are forced to buy back the asset to limit their losses.

Slippage Slippage is the difference between the price a trader expects to pay (or receive) for an asset and the price at which the trade actually executes.

Smart Contract A smart contract is a program stored on a blockchain that automatically executes predefined actions when specific conditions are met, with no human intermediary required.

Soft Commodities Soft commodities — often called "softs" — are agricultural products that are grown rather than mined, with the term most commonly applied to tropical crops such as coffee, sugar, cocoa, and cotton.

Soft Landing A soft landing is when a central bank successfully slows inflation without pushing the economy into a recession — cooling things down without crashing them.

Spare Capacity Spare capacity is idle production that a supplier can bring online quickly, acting as a buffer between current output and maximum possible output.

Speculation Speculation is the act of taking on financial risk by buying or selling an asset primarily to profit from future price changes, rather than to use the asset directly.

Spot Price The spot price is the current market price at which an asset can be bought or sold for immediate delivery and payment.

Stablecoin A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a fixed value — usually one US dollar — by backing each token with reserves or algorithmic mechanisms.

Stagflation Stagflation is an economic condition where high inflation and high unemployment occur simultaneously alongside slow or stagnant economic growth.

Staking Staking means locking cryptocurrency in a blockchain network to help validate transactions, with the network returning a yield to participants in the form of newly issued coins or transaction fees.

Stock Index A stock index is a single number that summarizes the combined price performance of a selected group of stocks, used as a benchmark for a market or sector.

Stock Split A stock split increases the number of a company's shares outstanding by dividing each existing share into multiple new ones, leaving the total value of the company unchanged.

Supply Shock A supply shock is a sudden, unexpected event that significantly disrupts the available quantity of a commodity or good, causing an abrupt price move that normal supply-and-demand forecasts did not anticipate.

T

Term Premium The term premium is the extra yield investors demand for holding a long-term bond instead of repeatedly rolling over a series of short-term bonds covering the same period.

Token A token is a digital asset issued and operated on top of an existing blockchain rather than running its own independent network.

Trade Balance The difference between the total value of a country's exports and its imports of goods and services over a given period.

Troy Ounce (ozt) A troy ounce is a unit of weight equal to 31.1 grams, used exclusively in precious-metals and gemstone markets, heavier than the everyday avoirdupois ounce of 28.35 grams.

U

Unemployment Rate The unemployment rate is the percentage of people in the labor force who are actively looking for work but currently have no job.

US Dollar Index (DXY) The US Dollar Index (DXY) measures the dollar's value against a fixed basket of six major currencies, showing whether the dollar is strengthening or weakening overall.

V

VIX (VIX) The VIX is a real-time index published by Cboe that measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options over the next 30 days, widely called the "fear index."

Volatility Volatility measures how much an asset's price swings up and down over a given period, expressed as an annualized percentage.

Volume Volume is the total number of units of an asset — shares, contracts, coins, or lots — that change hands during a specific time period.

W

WASDE Report (WASDE) The WASDE — World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates — is a monthly USDA report providing official forecasts of global production, consumption, trade, and stocks for major crops.

WTI Crude (WTI) WTI Crude, short for West Texas Intermediate, is the main US oil benchmark — a specific grade of light, sweet crude oil priced in US dollars per barrel and delivered at Cushing, Oklahoma.

Y

Yield Curve A yield curve is a line plotting the interest rates paid by bonds of the same type at every maturity, from short-term to long-term, at a single point in time.

Yield to Maturity (YTM) Yield to maturity (YTM) is the total annualized return a bondholder would earn if they bought the bond at its current price and held it until it repaid in full.

المسرد

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

قطاع الأعمال

المستهلك

GDP

الحكومة

الإسكان

سوق العمل

النقد

الأسعار

التجارة