Crypto Derivatives Glossary
16 plain-English definitions of the terms that matter in crypto derivatives and signal evaluation. Each entry links to the live data on our site, so you see the concept, then see it playing out in real markets. Skim the grid below or click into a term for the full explainer.
Funding Rate
Periodic payment between perpetual futures longs and shorts that keeps the contract tethered to spot.
Open Interest
Total notional value of all open futures positions at a given moment.
Basis
Price gap between a futures contract and its underlying spot index.
Liquidation
Forced closure of a leveraged position when its margin is exhausted.
Profit Factor
Ratio of gross winning trades to gross losing trades. Above 1 means the strategy is net positive.
Win Rate
Percentage of trades that closed profitably.
Basis Points (bps)
1 basis point = 0.01%. We use bps as the canonical unit for signal net return.
Slippage
Difference between the intended execution price and the actual filled price.
Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)
Buying a fixed USD amount of an asset on a fixed schedule regardless of price.
Altcoin Season (Altseason)
A market phase where altcoins broadly outperform Bitcoin, visible as falling BTC dominance during a rally.
Liquidation Heatmap
A chart estimating where leveraged futures positions would be forcibly closed, shown as price zones colored by intensity.
Long/Short Ratio
The ratio of accounts or positions long versus short a perpetual. Extremes flag crowded trades that often resolve violently.
Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D)
Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market cap. Rising dominance means capital rotating into BTC, falling means altcoins are outperforming.
Fear & Greed Index
Alternative.me's 0-100 gauge of market sentiment. We mirror it and blend it into our Retail Euphoria Index.
Pressure Score
Our proprietary 0-100 composite of derivatives stress per symbol.
Smart Money
Binance top-trader positioning, used as a contrarian or confirmatory signal vs retail.