Most industries have their own terminology which to outsiders can be confusing and the language of traders in particular can seem like another language.
Here is a selection of common terms which are significant for traders operating in the City.
Bear Market: A market where prices are generally seen to be falling.
Blackboard Trading: Where commodities are sold from a blackboard on the wall of a trading floor.
Bucket Shop: A poor quality trading house which "books" a customer's order without actually executing it on the markets.
In other words, one best avoided.
Bull: An investor who buys a commodity in the hope of selling it at a higher price, believing the market will go up.
A bull market is a rising market in which bulls would make money.
Fill or Kill Order: An order that requires immediate fulfilment or cancellation or will be worthless.
OCO - Order Cancels Order: Where a trader has a position in the market and he gives an order to sell it at a profit (if he was long) and stop himself out at a lower price.
Once one of the orders has been executed the other order gets pulled.
MOC - Market on close: An order to liquidate or initiate a trade in the closing period of a market MOO - Market on open: An order to liquidate or initiate a trade on the opening of a market.
Stop order: An order to liquidate a position or initiate a position at market once a price has traded Stop Limit: An Order to liquidate a position or initiate a position at a specific price once a price has traded.
Haircut: Determining whether assets meet capital requirements and if not reducing the value by a relative percentage.
Hedging: A hedge is where a trader will offset transactions that will eliminate as many types of risk as possible.
Scalping: Trading in and out of the market on tiny price changes.
A person who trades like this is known as a 'scalper'.
Short Selling: Investors 'borrow' an asset, selling first and then hopefully buying back at a lower price - such as shares, currencies or contracts - from another investor and then sell it in the relevant market hoping the price will fall.
The aim is to buy back the asset at a lower price, profiting from the difference in price.
Wash Trading: Making non-transactions to give the appearance that sales and purchases have been performed, without resulting in an actual change in the trader's position.
Weak Hands: Usually means that the purchaser of any given commodity probably does not intend to retain it long term; when used while talking about futures, the term usually means the market positions held by smaller traders or speculators.
Volatility: A measure of the amount of movement in the price of a commodity Each trading house also has its own specific terminology so keeping abreast of every term could be difficult for even the most experienced trader.
I hope the summary above will help you grasp some of the basics.