Position
An open trade. Its value moves with the market for as long as it stays open, and it is settled only when it closes.
Better Trading Starts Before the Trade
Markets become easier to navigate when you understand the language behind them.
Start here
Nothing on This Page Assumes You Have Traded Before
The Jim Ben & Conners learning center is designed to help you build market knowledge progressively – from basic concepts to more advanced analytical techniques.
This page is the first step: the words you will meet in the first hour, what each of them describes, and which of them decides how much a mistake costs.
The Words You Will Meet First
Six terms carry most of what happens in a trading account. Everything else on this site is described using them.
Order
An instruction to the platform. It sets the terms on which a position opens or closes. It does not set the outcome.
Spread
The difference between the price to buy an instrument and the price to sell it. A new position starts on the wrong side of that difference.
Leverage
Exposure larger than the capital committed to it. It scales the outcome of a position in both directions.
Margin
The capital held against an open position. If the market moves far enough against it, more may be required to keep the position open.
Volatility
How far and how fast a price moves. It is not constant, and it can rise sharply around scheduled announcements.
Every Position Takes a Side, and Either Side Can Be Wrong
A contract for difference can be opened in either direction. That is a choice about what you expect – not a hedge against being mistaken.
Whichever side you take, the position is settled against the difference between the price when it opened and the price when it closed. Choosing a direction does not make that difference smaller.
Going long
The position is opened in the expectation that the price will rise. It loses value if the price falls instead.
Going short
The position is opened in the expectation that the price will fall. It loses value if the price rises instead.
Not an advanced topic
Risk Is Not the Chapter at the End of This
Position size, stop losses, leverage and exposure are not material for later.
They decide what happens the first time a position moves against you, which is the one question the vocabulary on this page cannot answer on its own.
Where to Go From Here
Risk Management
Learn how position size, leverage and volatility affect exposure.
How CFD Trading Works
What a contract for difference is, and what has to be understood before one is opened.
The Trading Platform
Become comfortable using the tools available inside your account.
How to Get Started
What opening an account involves, step by step, before any position is placed.
Learning the Vocabulary Is the First Step, Not the Last One
Trading education is not about predicting every market move.
It's about developing a more structured way to approach uncertainty.
Next step
Start where you are.
Work through the basics, or go straight to the analysis and risk material.
Read: Market Analysis
Trading involves risk of loss. The risk disclosure is not yet published; the standardised risk warning is shown at the foot of every page.