Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms that show up across Nocterm - order-flow concepts, setup language, and the metrics behind the signals. Terms are listed alphabetically; where a term has its own article, the link is in the definition.

Term	Definition
Aggressor	The side that crossed the spread to make a trade happen - the buyer lifting the ask or the seller hitting the bid. Footprint colours volume by aggressor.
Candle heatmap	An overlay that paints buy/sell activity as heat shaped like candles, rather than as numbers. See Candle heatmap.
CVD (cumulative volume delta)	A running total of delta over time - buy-aggressor volume minus sell-aggressor volume, accumulated. Rising CVD means buyers are lifting; falling means sellers are pressing. See Market tape & CVD.
Confluence	When several independent signals point the same way at the same level - a pattern, a wall, and flow all lining up. More confluence, stronger read.
Delta	At a price or in a bar, buy-aggressor volume minus sell-aggressor volume. Positive means buyers were the aggressors; negative means sellers were. The building block of footprint and CVD.
EV (expected value)	The average outcome of a setup if you took it many times - win rate and reward-to-risk combined into one number. Positive EV is the goal; a high win rate alone isn’t enough.
Fair value gap	A price gap left by a fast move where little trading happened, often revisited later as price fills it back in.
Fade	Trading against a move - selling a breakout, buying a flush - on the read that it will reverse rather than continue. The opposite of follow.
Follow	Trading with a move - buying strength, selling weakness - on the read that it will continue. The opposite of fade.
Footprint	Per-candle detail showing how much traded at each price inside the bar, split by aggressor. See Footprint.
Fragility	How easily price can be pushed - the notional it takes to move the market a given amount, walked from book depth. Thin books are fragile; deep books resist.
Liquidity heatmap	An overlay that paints resting order-book depth onto the chart, brighter where more size rests. See Liquidity heatmap.
Order block	A zone where significant orders were placed before a strong move, often treated as a level price may react to on a return.
POC (point of control)	The price with the most traded volume - in a bar, or over a range. The level the most business was done at.
Prop-sim	A simulated prop-account mode with drawdown limits: breach a limit and the wallet latches closed until reset. See Prop-sim limits.
Pull / post	Liquidity being cancelled (pulled) versus added (posted) at a level - whether a wall is being built or yanked. Pairs with the liquidity heatmap.
Realized volatility	How much price actually moved over a recent window, measured from the prints - as opposed to expected or implied volatility.
Reclassified vs Classic lens	Two ways of reading the same chart pattern. The Classic lens is the textbook label; the Reclassified lens is the empirically observed play, which can run opposite the textbook (a pattern that statistically fades rather than follows).
R:R (reward-to-risk)	How much you stand to make versus how much you’re risking on a trade - for example, risking 1 to make 2 is 2:1. Feeds into EV.
Volatility cone	A range of how far price typically travels over a horizon, drawn as a cone - a calibrated sense of what’s a normal move versus an outsized one.
Watch	Flagging an instrument or setup to keep an eye on without committing to a trade yet.
Win rate	The share of trades that come out ahead. High on its own doesn’t mean profitable - it has to be weighed against R:R to get EV.