Plain-language definitions of the general market terms that come up across every asset class.
The basics
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Market | Where an asset is priced and traded. |
| Asset | Anything that can be traded — a currency, a commodity, an index, a cryptocurrency. |
| Index | A measure tracking a group of assets together. |
| Commodity | A physical good traded on markets, such as gold or oil. |
How markets behave
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Liquidity | How easily an asset trades without moving its price. |
| Session | The period a market is active. |
| Sentiment | The prevailing mood of participants toward an asset. |
| Correlation | The tendency of two markets to move together. |
Availability
| Term | What it means |
|---|
| Exchange hours | The session a traditional market follows. |
| OTC | A market quoted continuously rather than on exchange hours. See what are OTC pairs. |
| 24/7 | Continuously available, as crypto and OTC markets are. |
Putting it into practice
Definitions stick faster when you see them in use. Open a demo account — virtual funds, no deposit — and these terms stop being abstract within minutes.