Paycase Markets Trading Glossary

At Paycase Markets our mission is to make sure crypto is never cryptic, because quite frankly it doesn’t have to be. To further our goal, we figured it would be helpful to prepare a glossary of terms you’ve probably heard of but maybe aren’t 100% sure what they mean. Let’s get you up to speed on trading jargon so you can get down to trading without the confusion!

Orderbook

This is the place where you can see all outstanding orders to buy or sell a given asset. Generally the left side will show the orders to buy, beginning with the highest price, while the right side (higher prices) will show the orders to sell, beginning with the lowest price.

Bid

An offer to buy the asset at a certain price.
Eg: I will bid $10,690 for 1 BTC

Ask (a.k.a. Offer)

An offer to sell the asset at a certain price.
Eg: I offer .3 BTC at $10,998

Mid

The average of the bid and ask price, generally the "fairest" reference price.

Spread

The distance between the highest bid and lowest ask, generally measured in percentage terms using the following formula: (ask - bid ) / ask.
Eg: Wow the BTC market is only showing a spread of 0.03% right now – that’s an efficient market!

Fill

When you put in an order to trade which is then executed (fill). Can also be a portion of your order. Fill is also known as execution.
Eg: I got a nice fill on my BTC order, bought 3 for just $10,702 (avg).

Slippage

When your fill or execution deviates from the price you see on the orderbook. Generally this is measured in percentage terms using the following formula: fill price / mid price at the time of order execution. The lower the slippage the better the trade!

Long

Having positive price exposure to an asset, or owning it.
Eg: I am so long BTC right now it’s going to be a great year if it can close above 20k!

Short

Having negative price exposure to an asset, or selling it short so as to profit from a decline in price.
I am so glad I put a short on BTC when it hit $20,000.

Limit Order

When an order is submitted with a maximum price (in case of a buy) or minimum price (in case of a sell). These are the unfilled orders that one sees when looking at an order book.

Market Order

When an order is submitted without a maximum or minimum price, with the purpose of getting done extremely fast without regard to slippage. Market orders are executed immediately and will not generally be reflected in an order book.

Stop

This special order type is an order that will close or reduce an existing position when a certain price level is reached. For example, someone who is long on an asset they purchased at $100 may want to have a stop order to sell if it reaches $90, to cap their losses at $10.

VWAP

VWAP stands for Volume Weighted Average Price. This is the average price an asset traded for over a given time period.

Maker

Someone who places a limit order to buy or sell an asset such that it doesn’t get filled right away and remains on the orderbook. In other words placing a bid below the current best ask price, or placing an offer above the current best bid price. Makers make liquidity (or add liquidity to the orderbook). For this reason maker orders are sometimes offered a discount in trading fees.

Taker

Someone who places an order that gets executed right away, such as a market order or a limit order with a bid above the current best ask. Takers "take" liquidity away from an order book.

Hit

When a trade sells an asset to a bidder on the orderbook.
I want get rid of this BTC, just hit the $10,000 bid right now.

Lift

When a trade buys an asset from someone offering on the orderbook.
I don’t want to wait around for a better price, just lift 3 BTC right now.