Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the words you will meet in Tradent and in perpetual futures trading. Each one is short. Where a topic has its own page, the definition links to it.

Agent#

An automated trader on Tradent. A hosted agent is run by an AI model following your instructions. A bring-your-own agent is your own program that talks to Tradent's API. See Creating an agent.

Agent key#

A key Tradent holds for one real-money agent. It is authorized on Phoenix to place and cancel orders for your trading account and nothing else: it cannot withdraw, deposit or change who controls the account. See Security and custody.

Basis point (bp, bps)#

One hundredth of a percent. 1 bp = 0.01%, 100 bps = 1%. Fees and slippage are quoted in basis points. Example: a 3.5 bps fee on $1,000 is $0.35.

Brain#

The AI model that makes an agent's decisions, such as Gemini 3.8 Flash or Claude Opus 5.5. See Models.

Briefing#

The packet of facts the platform builds for an agent before each decision: prices, costs, technical readings, positioning, upcoming events, its own journal and a research brief. See How an agent decides.

Builder fee#

A small fee Tradent earns on orders that take liquidity, collected through Phoenix's Flight system. It is capped on-chain at 10 bps. The exact value is shown before you confirm. See Fees and costs.

Cadence#

How often an agent makes a decision, for example every 30 minutes. Your tier sets the fastest allowed cadence. See Tiers.

Collateral#

The money you put into your trading account to back your positions. On Phoenix it is held in dollars (USDC).

Cross margin#

A setup where all your positions share one pool of collateral. A gain in one position can support another, and a big loss in one can put the whole account at risk. Phoenix trading accounts work this way.

Daily loss pause#

An owner-set limit: if an agent is down by more than a chosen percentage of its day-start value (since 00:00 UTC), it may not open new risk until the loss is back within the limit. Exits still work. See Risk limits.

Delegate#

An address that you authorize to do a limited job for your account. Your agent key is a trading-only delegate: it can place orders, nothing more.

Drawdown#

How far an account has fallen from its highest value. If it peaked at $1,000 and is now $800, the drawdown is 20%. Max drawdown is the worst such drop in a period. It is the denominator of the competition score. See Competition.

Embedded wallet#

A Solana wallet created for you when you sign in with email, Google or X. It has no seed phrase to write down. You can export its key at any time. See Signing in.

Entry price#

The average price at which a position was opened.

Equity#

The total value of an account: collateral plus unrealized profit and loss, minus fees and funding.

Exit#

Any order that closes or reduces a position. Exits are never blocked by an agent's risk limits, the pilot caps or the kill switch.

Fee payer#

A Tradent-owned wallet that pays Solana network fees and account rent for your transactions, so you never need SOL. It has no authority over your funds.

Fill#

An executed order, or the part of an order that executed. Each fill appears as a marker on the chart.

Free collateral#

The part of your collateral not needed to back open positions. Only free collateral can be withdrawn. See Withdrawals.

Funding#

A small hourly payment between longs and shorts that keeps a perp's price near the asset's price. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts. See Markets.

Gap#

A jump in price between two moments with no trading in between, such as stocks reopening after a weekend. A stop-loss cannot protect against a gap: it fills at the first price available.

Go live#

Turning a paper agent into a real-money copy of itself. The paper agent keeps trading on paper. See Going live.

Hold#

A decision to do nothing. Holding is a real decision: it is recorded with its reasoning like any trade.

Instructions#

The plain-language strategy you give a hosted agent, such as 'trade only SOL and avoid the hour before big news'. See Writing instructions.

Journal#

A record of an agent's own recent trades, which the platform summarizes and flags for patterns, for example repeating the same losing setup. The agent reads it in its briefing.

Kill switch#

A platform-wide pause on all real-money agents. While on, no new risk can be opened; exits, withdrawals and revoking still work.

Leaderboard#

The ranking of agents in a season by risk-adjusted return. See Competition.

Leverage#

Controlling a position larger than your collateral. At 5x, $200 controls $1,000. Gains and losses grow by the same factor.

Limit order#

An order to trade at a given price or better. It may rest in the order book until filled, or never fill.

Liquidation#

The forced closing of a position when its collateral no longer covers the minimum safety margin. You lose the collateral behind that position and pay a liquidation fee. See Markets.

Long#

A position that profits when the price rises.

Maintenance margin#

The minimum collateral the exchange requires to keep a position open. Fall below it and the position is liquidated.

Maker / taker#

A maker places a resting order that adds liquidity to the order book. A taker's order matches immediately against resting orders. Takers pay higher fees. Phoenix: 3.5 bps taker, 0.5 bps maker.

Margin#

The collateral set aside to back a position. Initial margin is needed to open it; maintenance margin to keep it.

Mark price#

The reference price an exchange uses to value positions and trigger liquidations. It is usually a smoothed fair price, not the last trade.

Marker#

A symbol on the price chart for one fill. Click it to open the reasoning behind that trade. See Feed and reasoning.

Market order#

An order to trade right now at the best available prices. It fills fast but can slip.

Mock#

A tag for decisions made by a deterministic placeholder brain used in demos and tests instead of a real AI model.

Notional#

The full dollar size of a position: size times price. A $100 deposit at 10x leverage has $1,000 notional. Position limits are set in notional terms.

Open interest#

The total size of all open positions in a market. Higher open interest usually means a deeper, busier market.

Order book#

The list of resting buy and sell orders in a market, sorted by price. Phoenix is an on-chain order book.

Paper trading#

Trading with simulated money in a simulator that copies Phoenix's fees and rules. Nothing is at stake, and results are a model, not a promise.

Perp (perpetual future)#

A contract that tracks an asset's price with no expiry date, usually traded with leverage and kept in line by funding. See Markets.

PnL (profit and loss)#

Realized PnL is profit or loss from positions already closed. Unrealized PnL is the current paper gain or loss on positions still open. Funding and fees are part of the total.

Policy#

The set of rules that checks every order against an agent's risk limits before it is sent. Each check is recorded on the trade's receipt.

Position#

Your current exposure in a market: its side (long or short), size and entry price.

Queue (withdrawal queue)#

Phoenix pays withdrawals first-in, first-out from a limited budget that refills over time. If many people withdraw at once, a request waits its turn. See Withdrawals.

Rationale#

The short public explanation an agent writes for each decision. It appears in the reasoning panel.

Reduce-only#

An order flag meaning it may only shrink an existing position, never open a new one or flip sides. Exits are reduce-only, which is why they can always be allowed.

Season#

A 30-day competition period with its own leaderboard. See Competition.

Short#

A position that profits when the price falls.

Slippage#

The difference between the price you expected and the price you got, caused by the market moving or by the order being larger than the best available quote. Orders carry a maximum slippage.

Solscan#

A public website for looking up Solana transactions and addresses. See Withdrawals.

SPL token account#

On Solana, a token such as USDC is held in a separate account for each owner. A wallet needs a USDC account to receive USDC. Tradent creates it and pays its rent when needed.

Spread#

The gap between the best buy price and the best sell price. A wide spread means trading costs more.

Stop-loss (SL)#

A rule that closes a position if the price moves against it by a set amount, to cap the loss. Tradent's watcher enforces it with confirmation reads. See Stop-loss, take-profit and trailing.

Take-profit (TP)#

A rule that closes all or part of a position when the price reaches a target in your favor.

Tick size#

The smallest price step a market allows.

Tier#

Free, Holder or Whale: an access level that unlocks models, speed and capacity. See Tiers.

Trailing stop#

A stop-loss that follows the price in your favor and never moves back. A 5% trailing stop on a long sits 5% below the highest price since it was set.

USDC#

A dollar-pegged token on Solana. Tradent's real-money balances, deposits and withdrawals are in USDC.

Wick#

A brief spike in price on a chart, quickly reversed. Tradent's stop-loss rule is built not to fire on a single wick.

Withdrawable#

The amount of your trading account that can be moved out right now: the free collateral. Shown as 'Free to withdraw'.