Field Guide to Trading Terms

Instruments

Family I · 103 entries

This family covers the instruments themselves: the contracts, pairs and indices that a trader can actually buy or sell, and the units used to size and price them. The terms answer a single practical question — what exactly is being traded, and how is its value expressed? A newcomer should read currency pair first, because it establishes the two-sided quotation convention that forex, forex pairs and xauusd all inherit. From there, cfd and futures contract explain the two main wrappers around those underlying prices, while lot and lot size define the quantity you are committing to.

The most common mistake is treating every instrument in this family as interchangeable — assuming a cfd, a futures contract and a stock index carry the same expiry, funding and settlement mechanics when they do not.

Other families: II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII · Index A–Z