AP1 Week 9 Vocabulary: College of Market Foundations

This flashcard set covers the master vocabulary for AP1 Week 9, focusing on trade execution, risk management, and the behavioral aspects of live session trading.

Full trade

The whole sequence run from your own read to the exit: read, size, choose the entry and trigger, hold, and log. Think: the entire trade, start to finish, run by you.

Position size

How many contracts you put on. It sets the real dollars at risk, and it is your own decision, guided by $1$ to $2$ percent and by what you can carry. Think: how many contracts, and so how much real money is on the line.

Trigger

The thing that has to happen before you enter, named in advance. A resting order fills on it automatically at your line, or you wait and enter by hand on a confirmation like a candle close. Think: the exact thing that must happen before you click.

Resting order

A limit or a stop placed on the chart, built and ready, that fills on its own when price reaches your line. It cannot miss the move, but it fills on a touch, even a wick, not on a close. Think: set on the chart, fills itself, even on a wick.

Trade Bracket

One completed trade logged in the journal: direction, size, stop as risk, target as reward, entry and exit, and the result. Think: the finished trade, written down in full.

The Behavior Gap

The distance between what you know you should do and what you actually do under live pressure. It narrows with reps, not with more knowing. Think: the space between knowing and doing. Reps close it, not facts.

Read

Anything you can see and say about a chart. Every chart offers one. A read is not, by itself, a reason to trade. Think: what the chart shows. Not yet a reason to trade.

Setup

A specific, tradeable situation that meets all $4$ conditions: a clean level, confluence, with the trend, and reward worth the risk. Think: a read that passes all $4$ checks.

Confluence

More than one reason pointing the same way at a level. One reason is a maybe. Several agreeing is a setup. Think: several reasons agreeing at one spot.

The pass

The decision not to trade a read because it fails one of your conditions. An active choice, not inaction. Think: choosing not to trade. A move, not a miss.

Daily limit

The number of trades, or the loss for the day, you set in calm to stop at. Hitting it is itself a reason to pass, and it is your guard against the revenge spiral. Think: the wall you set in advance. Hit it, and you are done.

The One Big Trade Fantasy

The belief that a single trade is worth breaking your rules for. A face of the Behavior Gap, and a costly one. Think: the lie that this one trade is worth breaking your rules.

Breakeven stop

A stop moved up to your entry price once the trade is far enough in your favor, so the trade can no longer lose. It removes risk, never adds it. Think: move the stop to entry. Now it cannot lose.

Breakeven plus

A stop moved a little past your entry, into profit, so a reversal still leaves you a small gain instead of a scratch. Confirm the distance your broker allows. Think: a stop just past entry, to lock a little in.

Flatten (cut)

Closing a trade yourself, with the X or the flatten button, before it reaches your stop. It books a smaller loss when a trade is clearly failing, but done from fear it erodes your edge. Think: getting out by hand, before the stop. Only for a chart reason.

Partial, or scaling out

Taking part of your position off at a planned level while the rest runs toward a further target, $TP1$ then $TP2$. One planned partial is plenty for now, the fuller craft is Week $10$. Think: bank some now, let the rest run.

Widening the stop

Moving a stop farther from entry to avoid being hit. The cardinal error of management, and always rescue. Think: moving the stop away so it will not hit. Never do this.

Management

Following the rules you set in calm. It makes a loss smaller or leaves a winner alone. Quiet, ruled, decided in advance. Think: doing only what the plan already told you to do.

Rescue

Unplanned moves invented mid-trade to save a losing position. It makes a loss bigger. The thing to catch and refuse. Think: a mid-trade move to save a loser. It makes it worse.

The three pulls

The urges to get out, to do more, and to make it personal, that rise when a trade goes against you. Feelings, not information. Think: get out, do more, make it personal. All feelings, not facts.

Going flat

Closing your position entirely to return to no position and a clear head. The first move after any mistake or wrong click. Think: all the way out, back to a clear head.

Averaging down

Adding to a losing trade to lower your average price. It doubles risk on a failing position, and in a day trade it is always a mistake. Think: adding to a loser. It doubles the risk.

Overtrading

Taking more trades than your setups justify, usually because one of the pulls, or a feeling, is running you. Think: more trades than the setups earned.

Emotional trading

Any trade driven by a feeling rather than a setup, from fear to boredom to the invincibility that follows a win. Revenge trading is its most dangerous member. Think: trading the feeling instead of the setup.

Revenge trade

A trade taken to win back a loss rather than because the setup earned it. The most destructive pattern in trading. Think: trading to get even. The most costly habit there is.

Debrief

The honest review after a session, of decisions rather than dollars, that turns a blur of trades into a record you can learn from. Think: the honest look back at your decisions, not your money.

Win rate

The percentage of your trades that are winners. Meaningless on its own, without reward-to-risk beside it. Think: how often you win. Half the picture, never read alone.

Reward-to-risk (R to R)

How much a winner makes compared to how much a loser costs. Read together with win rate, it reveals your real edge. Think: what a win makes against what a loss costs.

Process over profit

Judging a session by whether you followed your plan, not by the money, because the money follows the process only over time. Think: grade the plan you followed, not the day's money.

Carry one thing

The single lesson chosen at the end of each debrief to focus on next session. One at a time is how change compounds. Think: one lesson forward, not ten.