Trading in financial markets has its own language full of animal metaphors and jargon that comes from decades ago on Wall Street, trader forums, and now the crypto world.
Here I show you a list of the most used terms:
🐂 Bull
A bull market means that prices are rising steadily.
A “bullish” trader believes that the price will rise.
👉 Example: “I’m bullish on Bitcoin” = I believe it will rise.
🐻 Bear
A bear market is when prices fall for an extended period.
A “bearish” trader believes that the price will fall.
👉 Example: “Ethereum is in a bear market” = downward trend.
🐋 Whales
Investors or institutions that hold large amounts of an asset.
They can move the market with a single transaction due to the liquidity they control.
👉 Example: “A whale transferred 10,000 BTC to Binance, beware of a strong sell.”
🦐 Shrimps
Small retail investors, with very little capital compared to whales.
In the crypto ecosystem, they are often the most vulnerable to sharp movements.
🦈 Sharks
Medium-sized traders, larger than shrimps but smaller than whales.
They often move quickly to take advantage of volatility.
🐔 Chickens
Derogatory term for those who sell quickly out of fear of losing, even with minimal losses.
Other terms 🔑
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) 😰: Fear of missing out on a rise. Causes many to buy high.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) 😨: Negative news or rumors that generate mass selling.
Pump and Dump 📈📉: Artificially inflating the price (pump) to then sell off massively (dump).
Moon / To the moon 🚀: When it is believed that an asset will rise immensely, this expression is often used to increase speculation, one should not blindly trust this word.
Bagholder 🎒: Someone who holds coins that have lost almost all their value, hoping they will rise someday.
Diamond Hands 💎🙌: Investors who hold without selling, even when the price falls.
Paper Hands 🧻🤲: The opposite, someone who sells quickly out of fear.