Trading Glossary

The excess return of an investment relative to a benchmark index. Positive alpha means the investment outperformed; negative alpha means underperformance.

Doc-AI's meta-ensemble AI layer that combines outputs from all 24 AI engines into a single directional signal with confidence score. Named after the ancient Athenian council.

A technical indicator measuring market volatility. It calculates the average of true ranges over a period. A rising ATR indicates increasing volatility. Used by Doc-AI to size stop-loss levels.

Testing a trading strategy against historical data to evaluate how it would have performed. Available in Doc-AI Strategy Lab.

A measure of a stock's volatility relative to the overall market. Beta of 1 means it moves with the market; >1 means more volatile; <1 means less volatile.

A large transaction of securities, typically 10,000+ shares or a dollar value threshold, often executed in dark pools to minimise market impact.

A private exchange or forum for trading securities away from public exchanges. Institutions use dark pools to execute large orders without revealing their intentions until after execution.

The percentage of a stock's total daily volume that traded in dark pools vs. on public exchanges. A high dark pool % (>40%) may indicate heavy institutional positioning.

An options greek measuring how much an option's price changes for a $1 move in the underlying. Delta ranges from 0 to 1 for calls and 0 to -1 for puts.

Doc-AI's alternative data feeds include satellite imagery (parking lot counts), web traffic, foot traffic data, and social sentiment — data types not in traditional financial feeds.

A conference call where company management discusses quarterly financial results with analysts and investors. High-volatility events — Doc-AI highlights upcoming earnings on your watchlist tickers.

A company's net profit divided by number of outstanding shares. A key metric in earnings reports. Surprise (actual vs. estimated EPS) often drives large price moves.

The Federal Open Market Committee sets US interest rate policy. FOMC meetings (8 per year) and the resulting rate decisions are major market-moving events tracked in the Doc-AI economic calendar.

Executing a trade based on advance knowledge of pending orders. Illegal when done by brokers using client order information, but legal when using publicly available information.

An options greek measuring the rate of change of delta per $1 move in the underlying. High gamma = delta changes rapidly = risk increases significantly near expiration.

Delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho — the five main options greeks measuring sensitivity to price, time, and volatility changes. Doc-AI displays all greeks in the options chain view.

The actual volatility of a security over a past period, calculated from price returns. Compare to IV to assess whether options are cheap or expensive relative to realised moves.

The market's expectation of future volatility, derived from options prices. High IV = expensive options. IV expansion before earnings and contraction after ('IV crush') is a key options trading concept.

Compares current implied volatility to its 52-week range. IVR of 80% means current IV is in the top 20% of the past year. High IVR is generally good for selling options premium.

A button in Doc-AI's Auto-Trade section that immediately pauses all active trading rules. Use it if you need to stop all automated activity instantly.

How easily an asset can be bought or sold without affecting its price. High liquidity = tight spreads and deep order book. Low liquidity = wide spreads and slippage.

Total market value of a company's outstanding shares (stock price × shares outstanding). Doc-AI uses market cap to categorise tickers: micro (<$300M), small ($300M–$2B), mid ($2B–$10B), large (>$10B).

The options strike price at which the greatest number of option contracts (by dollar value) expire worthless. Max pain theory suggests stock prices gravitate toward this level at expiration.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence — a trend-following momentum indicator showing the relationship between two moving averages. A MACD crossover is a common buy/sell signal.

An options contract with no intrinsic value. Calls are OTM when the strike is above current price; puts are OTM when the strike is below current price.

The total number of outstanding options or futures contracts that have not been settled. Rising open interest with rising price = new buyers entering. Doc-AI charts OI alongside price.

Price-to-Earnings ratio — stock price divided by earnings per share. A common valuation metric. High P/E may indicate growth expectations; low P/E may indicate undervaluation or low growth.

A momentum oscillator measuring the speed and magnitude of price changes, scaled 0–100. RSI >70 = overbought; RSI <30 = oversold. Available in Doc-AI's chart indicators.

The percentage of a company's float that has been sold short. High short interest (>20%) can lead to short squeezes if the stock rises sharply.

Institutional investors, hedge funds, and other large, informed market participants. Doc-AI's smart money feed tracks large options prints, dark pool transactions, and congressional trades as proxies for smart money activity.

A short squeeze occurs when a heavily shorted stock rises, forcing short sellers to cover (buy), driving the price higher. A gamma squeeze is similar but driven by options dealers delta-hedging.

Doc-AI's analysis of a company's supplier and customer relationships using SEC filings, shipping data, and satellite imagery. Detects disruptions before they appear in earnings.

A large options order split across multiple exchanges to fill quickly. Sweeps are aggressive and often indicate directional conviction. Bull sweeps = calls, Bear sweeps = puts.

An options greek measuring daily time decay — how much an option loses in value each day as it approaches expiration, all else equal. Theta is your enemy as an options buyer and your friend as a seller.

An options greek measuring sensitivity to changes in implied volatility. Long options have positive vega (benefit from rising IV); short options have negative vega (benefit from falling IV).

The CBOE Volatility Index — commonly called the 'fear gauge'. It measures expected 30-day volatility of the S&P 500. VIX >30 is high fear; VIX <15 is complacency.

A charting tool showing the distribution of trading volume at different price levels over a period. High-volume nodes act as support/resistance. Available in Doc-AI's advanced chart settings.

In Doc-AI, a whale is an options print exceeding $1M in total premium. Whale prints are highlighted gold in the options flow feed and tracked in the Whale Tracker page.