A
- A-Book
- An execution model in which a broker passes client orders to external liquidity providers rather than taking the opposite side. Learn more
- Aggregation
- Combining price streams from several liquidity providers into one order book showing the best available bid and ask. Learn more
- AML
- Anti-money laundering — the controls brokers use to detect and prevent financial crime, such as sanctions and PEP screening. Learn more
B
- B-Book
- An execution model in which a broker internalises client trades and takes the opposite side, carrying market risk. Learn more
- Back Office
- The administrative system a broker uses for client accounts, finance, compliance, permissions and reporting. Learn more
- Bridge
- See Liquidity Bridge. Learn more
C
- CFD
- Contract for difference — a derivative that lets traders speculate on price movements without owning the underlying asset. Learn more
- Copy Trading
- A service in which investors automatically mirror the trades of a chosen strategy provider in their own account. Learn more
- cTrader
- A trading platform known for its depth-of-market view and C# algorithmic trading, offered by many brokers alongside MetaTrader. Learn more
D
- Dynamic Leverage
- Leverage that changes automatically based on position size, exposure, equity or scheduled news events. Learn more
E
- ECN
- Electronic communication network — an execution model where orders are matched with liquidity from multiple participants. Learn more
F
- FIX API
- Financial Information eXchange — the industry-standard protocol for electronic orders and market data between institutions. Learn more
- Forex CRM
- Software that manages a broker's leads, clients, KYC, payments, trading accounts, IBs and reporting. Learn more
- Full Licence (MetaTrader)
- A MetaTrader server licence owned by the broker, giving full control over its own trading server. Learn more
H
- Hedging Account
- An account mode that allows several positions, including opposite positions, in the same symbol. Learn more
- Hybrid Execution
- Routing some clients or trades to the A-book and internalising others, based on risk rules. Learn more
I
- IB (Introducing Broker)
- A partner who refers clients to a broker and earns commissions or rebates on their trading. Learn more
K
- KYC
- Know your customer — verification of a client's identity and address before they can trade. Learn more
L
- Latency
- The delay between a price or order being sent and received; lower latency means faster execution. Learn more
- Liquidity Bridge
- Software that connects a trading server such as MT4/MT5 to liquidity providers and routes orders by rules. Learn more
- Liquidity Provider (LP)
- A bank, prime-of-prime broker or venue that streams executable prices and fills orders. Learn more
M
- MAM
- Multi-account manager — a system that lets a money manager trade many separate investor accounts with individual allocations. Learn more
- Margin Call
- A warning issued when an account's equity falls below a required level relative to used margin. Learn more
- Markup
- An amount added to the raw spread by the broker as a source of revenue. Learn more
- MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
- A widely used trading platform focused on forex and CFDs, with a large ecosystem of expert advisors. Learn more
- MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
- A multi-asset trading platform supporting forex, stocks, indices, commodities and crypto CFDs, hedging and netting. Learn more
N
- Negative Balance Protection
- A safeguard ensuring a retail client cannot lose more than the funds in their account. Learn more
- Netting Account
- An account mode in which only one net position per symbol is held. Learn more
P
- PAMM
- Percentage allocation management module — a pooled account where a manager trades and results are shared by investors' percentage. Learn more
- Payment Gateway
- Technology that securely processes deposits and withdrawals between clients, processors and the broker. Learn more
- Prime of Prime (PoP)
- A provider that gives smaller brokers access to tier-1 bank liquidity through its own prime brokerage relationships. Learn more
- Prop Firm
- A proprietary trading firm that evaluates traders through challenges and gives successful traders funded accounts with a profit split. Learn more
- Prop Firm CRM
- Software that manages challenge sales, evaluations, funded accounts and payouts for a prop firm. Learn more
S
- Slippage
- The difference between the requested price of an order and the price at which it is filled. Learn more
- Smart Order Routing
- Automatically sending each order to the venue or provider most likely to give the best execution. Learn more
- Spread
- The difference between the bid and ask price of an instrument. Learn more
- STP
- Straight-through processing — orders are passed directly to liquidity providers without dealing-desk intervention. Learn more
- Swap
- The overnight interest charged or paid for holding a position past the daily rollover. Learn more
- Swap-Free (Islamic) Account
- An account that does not charge or pay overnight swap, often with a transparent fixed administration fee instead. Learn more
T
- Toxic Flow
- Trading activity that consistently harms a broker, such as latency arbitrage or exploitation of stale prices. Learn more
- Trader's Room
- A broker's branded client portal for account opening, deposits, withdrawals and documents. Learn more
- Turnkey Brokerage
- A ready-made package of platform, liquidity, CRM, payments and support for launching a brokerage quickly. Learn more
W
- White Label
- A branded version of a trading platform that runs on a licensed provider's infrastructure under the broker's own name. Learn more