Market Structure
Order books, bid-ask spreads, market making, dark pools, and exchange mechanics.
36 terms
A
Absorption
advancedA pattern where large passive orders at a price level consume aggressive orders without price moving, indicating institutional defense of a level.
After-Hours Trading
intermediateTrading activity outside regular market hours, particularly relevant for CME Bitcoin futures and its impact on spot crypto markets.
Aggregation
intermediateThe process of combining orders or liquidity from multiple sources to achieve better execution prices and reduced slippage.
Ask Price
beginnerThe lowest price at which a seller is willing to sell an asset. It represents the minimum price you will pay when placing a market buy order.
Auction Mechanism
intermediateA price discovery method where buyers and sellers submit bids that are matched at discrete intervals or through specific rules rather than continuous trading.
B
Best Execution
intermediateThe principle of executing trades at the most favorable price available, considering price, speed, fees, and market impact.
Bid Price
beginnerThe highest price a buyer is willing to pay for an asset. It represents the maximum price you will receive when placing a market sell order.
Bid-Ask Spread
beginnerThe difference between the highest bid price and the lowest ask price in an order book. A key measure of market liquidity and trading cost.
C
Central Limit Order Book
intermediateAn electronic system that matches buy and sell orders by price and time priority, forming the core of centralized exchange trading.
Circuit Breaker
intermediateA trading halt mechanism used by some exchanges to pause trading during extreme price moves, preventing panic-driven cascading crashes.
D
Dark Pool
advancedA private trading venue where large orders are executed without displaying them on the public order book, minimizing market impact.
Depth of Market
intermediateThe total volume of limit orders at each price level in the order book, visualizing how much buying and selling interest exists at different prices.
F
Fill or Kill
intermediateAn order instruction requiring the entire order to execute immediately and completely, or be canceled entirely — no partial fills allowed.
Funding Rate Heatmap
intermediateA visualization showing funding rate levels across multiple exchanges and assets simultaneously, identifying positioning extremes and potential reversal zones.
L
Latency
intermediateThe time delay between a trading action being initiated and executed, measured in milliseconds, critical for time-sensitive strategies.
Latency Arbitrage
advancedA trading strategy exploiting tiny time differences in price updates between exchanges to profit from temporary price discrepancies.
Liquidation Heatmap
advancedA chart overlay showing the price levels where the highest concentration of leveraged positions would be liquidated, revealing potential price magnets.
Liquidity
beginnerThe ease with which an asset can be bought or sold without significantly affecting its price. High liquidity means tight spreads and minimal slippage.
Liquidity Fragmentation
intermediateThe splitting of trading activity across multiple exchanges and venues, reducing depth at any single venue and increasing overall market inefficiency.
M
Maker Order
beginnerA limit order that adds liquidity to the order book by resting at a price that doesn't immediately match, typically charged lower fees.
Maker-Taker Fee Model
beginnerA fee structure that charges lower fees to limit order providers (makers) and higher fees to market order executors (takers) to incentivize liquidity.
Market Impact
intermediateThe price movement caused by executing a trade, determined by order size relative to available liquidity at the current price.
Market Maker
intermediateA firm or individual that provides liquidity by continuously placing buy and sell orders on an exchange, profiting from the bid-ask spread.
Market Microstructure
advancedThe study of how specific trading mechanisms and rules affect price formation, execution quality, and information dissemination in financial markets.
O
Order Book
beginnerA real-time list of all pending buy and sell orders for an asset on an exchange, showing the depth of supply and demand at each price level.
Order Flow Analysis
advancedThe study of actual buy and sell orders hitting the market in real-time to understand the imbalance between aggressive buyers and sellers.
OTC Trading
intermediateOver-the-Counter trading where large transactions are negotiated directly between parties off-exchange, avoiding public order book impact.
P
Price Discovery
intermediateThe process by which a market determines the fair price of an asset through the continuous interaction of buyers and sellers.
Price Impact
intermediateThe change in asset price caused by executing a trade, determined by order size relative to available liquidity at each price level.
S
Slippage
beginnerThe difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual execution price, caused by market movement or insufficient liquidity during order execution.
Spoofing
advancedIllegal market manipulation where large fake orders are placed and immediately canceled to create false impressions of supply or demand.
Spot ETF
beginnerAn exchange-traded fund that directly holds the underlying cryptocurrency, providing traditional investors regulated exposure without managing wallets or keys.
Sweep
intermediateA large market order that aggressively takes out multiple price levels in the order book, often signaling institutional urgency and directional conviction.
T
Taker Order
beginnerA market or aggressive limit order that removes liquidity from the order book by immediately matching with existing resting orders.
Tick Size
beginnerThe minimum price increment at which an asset can trade on a given exchange, determining the finest granularity of price movement.
TWAP
advancedTime-Weighted Average Price — an execution algorithm that splits a large order into smaller pieces executed at regular intervals to minimize market impact.