Trade Plans Glossary

Trade Plans glossary

Every term used in a daily plan, defined plainly. If something in a plan is unfamiliar, it is here. The learning centre covers how the pieces fit together.

The levels themselves

Resistance: a price above the current market where sellers have stepped in before. A move up into resistance is a spot to expect friction.
Support: a price below the current market where buyers have defended before. A move down into support is a spot where a fall may slow or stop.
Pivot: the level nearest the last close. Price usually interacts with it first, which makes it the natural reference for judging the session.
Level: any single price in the plan. A level marks where the market has reacted before. It is not a prediction that the market will react there again.
Cluster: several nearby reaction prices grouped into one level, so the plan shows one meaningful line instead of five near-identical ones.
Sidelined: a session where the levels did not resolve into anything worth trading, stated as such rather than manufacturing a setup. Sitting out is a legitimate outcome.

Sessions and timing

Regular session (RTH): the main cash-market hours. 9:30am to 4:00pm ET for the US instruments, 10:00am to 4:00pm Sydney for the ASX 200. Levels are built from this window rather than the overnight cycle, so they describe the hours most traders actually trade.
Prior session: the session before the one a plan covers. Free-tier levels are prior-session levels, published with a breakdown of how price behaved around them.
Overnight session: futures hours outside the regular session. ES and NQ trade close to 23 hours a day, the SPI has a night session from 5:10pm Sydney, and the ETFs do not trade then at all.
Gap: an open away from the previous close, so the first traded price of the session skips over prices in between. A gap can put the market on the far side of a level before you have a chance to act at it.
Open, high, low, close: the four prices summarising a session. Session reviews quote these when describing how price moved around a level.

The instruments

SPY: an ETF holding the S&P 500 constituents. Trades in a stock account, in any share quantity, during regular US hours.
ES: the E-mini S&P 500 futures contract. $50 per index point, minimum tick 0.25 points, so $12.50 a tick. The micro version is MES at $5 per point.
QQQ: an ETF holding the Nasdaq 100 constituents, in a stock account like SPY.
NQ: the E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures contract. $20 per index point, minimum tick 0.25 points, so $5.00 a tick. The micro version is MNQ at $2 per point. The most volatile of the four US products covered.
ASX 200 / SPI: the ASX 200 is the Australian cash index; the SPI 200 is the futures contract written on it and the instrument that actually trades. A$25 per index point, minimum tick one point.
Paired instruments: SPY and ES track the same index, as do QQQ and NQ. Trading both halves of a pair doubles one exposure rather than diversifying.

Contract mechanics

Tick: the smallest price increment an instrument can move. Multiply the tick by the value per point to get what one tick is worth.
Index point: one whole point of the underlying index. Point value differs per contract, which is why the same index move is worth different amounts in ES and NQ.
Micro contract: a smaller version of a futures contract (MES, MNQ) with the same structure at a fraction of the point value, so position size can step in smaller increments.
Contract months: futures expire on a cycle. The SPI runs March, June, September and December, and levels always refer to the contract currently trading.
Pattern day trader rule: a former US rule that applied to margin stock accounts under $25,000. FINRA eliminated it, and the $25,000 minimum, on June 4, 2026, replacing it with an intraday margin standard. It never applied to futures, so ES and NQ were always outside it. Brokers may take until October 2027 to implement the change.

Using the plan

Decision point: what a level actually is. Price arriving at one does not mean act. It means you now have a defined place to find out whether the level holds.
Invalidation: the price at which the idea you were working from is wrong. A level gives you one, which is what keeps a loss contained.
Alert: a notification set near a level so you are not watching the screen continuously. The alternative, watching and waiting, is where impulsive entries come from.
Process review: checking after the close whether you followed your own rules, separately from whether the trade made money.
Free tier: the prior session's levels plus how price behaved around them.
Paid tier: the upcoming session's levels, published the evening before, with resistance, pivot and support points and the MyLinedChart levels.

Is any of this advice?

No. These are definitions of terms describing objective market structure. Trade Plans publishes no signals, no calls on direction and no recommendations. You make and own your trades.