Collection

Finance & Stock Slang

Finance and stock-market slang decoded — stonks, tendies, diamond hands and WallStreetBets lingo with real meanings and origins. Properly sourced.

245 words

DFV 18+
proper noun

Mature content — open to view.

#finance#stocks#wsb#gamestop
in the red
phrase

Operating at a financial loss.

#corporate#office#work#finance
White knight
noun

Friendly buyer that swoops in to rescue a company from a hostile bidder.

#finance#wall-street#m-and-a#takeovers
Haircut
noun

A discount applied to an asset's value, or a forced loss on a position.

#finance#wall-street#trading#credit
spondulicks
noun

Money; cash.

#finance#stocks#wsb#classic
brass
noun

Money (Northern English).

#finance#stocks#wsb#british
strong hands
noun

Traders with the conviction to hold through volatility.

#finance#stocks#wsb#behavior
chop
noun

Directionless, back-and-forth price action with no clear trend.

#finance#stocks#wsb#chart
Boiler room
noun

A high-pressure phone-bank operation cold-calling retail to dump dodgy stock.

#finance#wall-street#fraud#sales
marge called
phrase

Being force-liquidated because you can't meet a margin requirement.

#finance#stocks#wsb#margin
swinging
verb

Holding a trade for several days or weeks to catch a bigger move.

#finance#stocks#wsb#strategy
position or ban
phrase

WSB demand to prove your trade with a screenshot or get removed.

#finance#stocks#wsb#proof
Witching hour
noun

The last hour of trading on options-expiry days, when prices go feral.

#finance#wall-street#options#derivatives
death cross
noun

A bearish signal when a short moving average crosses below a long one.

#finance#stocks#wsb#technical
fiver
noun

A five-dollar or five-pound note.

#finance#stocks#wsb#denomination
blue face
noun

A hundred-dollar bill.

#finance#stocks#wsb#denomination
apes together strong
phrase

Rallying cry that retail traders are powerful when they hold as one.

#finance#stocks#wsb#solidarity
January effect
noun

A tendency for stocks, especially small caps, to rise in January.

#finance#stocks#wsb#seasonal
Basis point
noun

One hundredth of a percent — the unit finance uses when 'percent' is too clumsy.

#finance#wall-street#rates#bonds
0DTE
noun

Options expiring the same day — maximum-risk lottery tickets.

#finance#stocks#wsb#options
IV
noun

Implied volatility — the market's expected size of future price swings.

#finance#stocks#wsb#options
Wash trade
noun

Buying and selling the same security with no real change of ownership, just to fake activity.

#finance#wall-street#manipulation#crypto
clams
noun

Dollars; money.

#finance#stocks#wsb#classic
limon
noun

One million rubles (Russian slang: 'lemon').

#finance#stocks#wsb#russian
Greenmail
noun

Buy a big stake, threaten a takeover, then sell it back to the target at a premium.

#finance#wall-street#m&a#corporate-raid
retail
noun

Ordinary individual investors, as opposed to big institutions.

#finance#stocks#wsb#individual
Widow-and-orphan stock
noun

A boring, safe, dividend-paying share thought fit for people who can't afford to lose.

#finance#wall-street#dividends#blue-chip
puts
noun

Options that profit when a stock's price goes down.

#finance#stocks#wsb#options
BSD 18+
noun

Mature content — open to view.

#finance#wall-street#trading#liars-poker
FD 18+
noun

Mature content — open to view.

#finance#stocks#wsb#options
babki
noun

Money (Russian slang).

#finance#stocks#wsb#russian
gouda
noun

Money; a play on 'cheese' and 'cheddar.'

#finance#stocks#wsb#food
boomer stock
noun

A stable, dividend-paying stock favored by older, cautious investors.

#finance#stocks#wsb#equity
benji
noun

A hundred-dollar bill.

#finance#stocks#wsb#denomination
ITM
adjective

In the money — an option that already has intrinsic value.

#finance#stocks#wsb#options
fintok
noun

Finance TikTok — short-video trading hype and meme trades.

#finance#stocks#wsb#social-media
circuit breaker
noun

An automatic trading halt triggered by a large market drop.

#finance#stocks#wsb#mechanics
whipsaw
noun

A sharp price move quickly reversed the other way.

#finance#stocks#wsb#volatility
finnif
noun

A five-dollar bill.

#finance#stocks#wsb#denomination
short squeeze
noun

A price spike forcing short sellers to buy back, driving it higher still.

#finance#stocks#wsb#mechanics