| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| ES | The E-mini S&P 500 futures contract (CME). One point = $50. MES is the micro, one tenth the size. |
| RTH | Regular trading hours, 9:30 AM – 4:15 PM Eastern. The profile and value area are built from these bars. |
| Overnight (ON) / Globex | The session from 6:00 PM to 9:30 AM Eastern. ON open, high and low are the three numbers typed into the card each morning. |
| Settle | The official closing price of the prior session; the reference for "overnight inventory". |
| VIX | The CBOE volatility index. On the card it is the referee: its direction since the prior close decides ties between rules. Under 17 calm, 17–20 elevated, over 20 hot. |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| TPO | Time-price opportunity: one letter per half-hour period at each price. Stacking the letters makes the profile. |
| Value area (VA), VAH, VAL | The prices where 70% of the day's activity happened; its high and low edges. Opening inside value = rotation; outside = a test of the edge; beyond the whole range = a gap. |
| POC / VPOC | The price with the most time (TPO POC) or the most volume (VPOC). A wide VPOC carries forward as a magnet. |
| Single prints / tail | Prices visited by only one period — a fast move through. A tail at the high or low is rejection; a run of singles in the middle gets "filled" later. |
| Poor high / low | An extreme with no tail — the auction did not finish there and usually returns. |
| Naked level | A VPOC, VAH or VAL that price has not touched since the day it formed. Acts as a magnet; the first touch usually reacts. |
| Balance | The high and low of the last 5 or 10 sessions. Inside = rotation rules; a close outside = trend rules. |
| Day type | Normal, Normal Variation, Trend, Neutral, Double Distribution — how far the day extended past its first hour. |
| Initial balance (IB) | The first hour's range (9:30–10:30). |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| Footprint | A bar broken into price rows, each showing how much traded at the bid and at the ask. |
| Delta | Buys at the ask minus sells at the bid. Counts who was aggressive, not who won. See The Three Questions. |
| CVD | Cumulative delta — the running total through the session. Rising while price falls = buyers being absorbed. |
| CVD proxy | The card's estimate of a day's delta from 5-minute bars (close location × volume). Sign and strength only — the footprint CVD is the live number. |
| Absorption | Aggressive orders that get nothing: a big red that cannot push price down was absorbed by passive buyers. |
| Big print | A cell of ±500 or more. The level tells you whether to care; the next bar tells you what it meant. |
| Progress | Question 2: price travelling more than ~4 points past a print in the next bar or two. |
| Answer | Question 3: the opposite colour printing at least half the size within two ticks. The answer is the entry. |
| Last buyer / last seller | The biggest green (red) of a move printing at a known seller (buyer) at the top (bottom) of its bar with no progress — then answered. Fast form: next bar. Slow form: shrinking prints, a lower high, a close below the first big red. |
| Bottom rule / top rule | Three facts in one bar at a support: the big red fails, a ≥+500 answers, the bar closes back above the edge. The top rule is the mirror. |
| First hit / second hit | A big print at a level with no follow-through is a warning; the break is a bigger print through it that closes beyond. Call a trap only after the next test holds. |
| Ledge | Both sides absorbed at the same prices. Breaks toward the absorbing side unless the referee is moving the other way. No trade inside it. |
| Pre-arm | Placing the stop order under the bar the moment the suspicious big print appears, before the answer. |
| Run over | A big green with reds printed under it in the same bar: the buyer was hit immediately. Not a bottom. |
| Term | Meaning |
|---|
| MGI | Morning gap indicator: three votes — gap vs the prior range, value vs the prior value area, index = percent move from the close. 3–0 / 0–3 is a one-sided open. |
| Overnight inventory | Where the overnight volume traded relative to the settle: above = the crowd built longs. Shown as a range proxy on live mornings until the bars arrive. |
| ON CVD | The session cumulative delta read off the footprint chart at build time: who was hitting all night. |
| Trend-day filter | Five pre-open tells; three or more with a large gap = trend day. See Trend Day. |
| Setups A / B / C / D | Accept the ceiling / fade it / buy the stack / short the breakdown. C′ and D′ are the same idea at the edge price is standing on. |
| Lean | The badge on the setup the day's structure favours. |
| Resting order | The stop or limit placed before 9:30 so the setup can fill without a decision at the bell. |
| Stop pad | How far beyond a level the stop sits: 6% of the 14-day average range, 8% when the VIX is 20 or more. |
| Analog / fingerprint | Sessions since 2008 matching today's gap size, open location and prior-day shape, and what they did. |
| As built | The card frozen at build time. The archive shows the as-built card, never a re-run. |