A hedge fund is an investment fund open to a limited range of investors that undertakes a wider range of investment and trading activities than long-only investment funds, and that, in general, pays a performance fee to its investment manager. Every hedge fund has its own investment strategy that determines the type of investments and the methods of investment it undertakes. Hedge funds, as a class, invest in a broad range of investments including shares, debt and commodities.

As the name implies, hedge funds often seek to hedge some of the risks inherent in their investments using a variety of methods, most notably short selling and derivatives. However, the term "hedge fund" has also come to be applied to certain funds that do not hedge their investments, and in particular to funds using short selling and other "hedging" methods to increase rather than reduce risk, with the expectation of increasing the return on their investment.

Firms specializing in connecting buyers and sellers of their client companies stocks.

Fibonacci numbers are a sequence of numbers where each successive number is the sum of the two previous numbers. These numbers play an important role in determining relative areas where the prices of financial assets experience large price moves or change direction. The four popular Fibonacci studies are arcs, fans, retracements and time zones.

This charting technique consists of a series of vertical lines that correspond to the sequence of Fibonacci numbers (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, etc.). Once a trader chooses a starting position (most commonly following a major move) on the chart, a vertical line is placed on every subsequent day that corresponds to the position in the Fibonacci number sequence.

There are 5 waves in the dominant trend:

Wave 1: Wave one is rarely obvious at its inception. When the first wave of a new bull market begins, the fundamental news is almost universally negative. The previous trend is considered still strongly in force.

Wave 2: Wave two corrects wave one, but can never extend beyond the starting point of wave one. Typically, the news is still bad. As prices retest the prior low, bearish sentiment quickly builds, and "the crowd" haughtily reminds all that the bear market is still deeply ensconced.

Wave 3: Wave three is usually the largest and most powerful wave in a trend (although some research suggests that in commodity markets, wave five is the largest). The news is now positive and fundamental analysts start to raise earnings estimates.

Wave 4: Wave four is typically clearly corrective. Prices may meander sideways for an extended period, and wave four typically retraces less than 38.2% of wave three.

Wave 5: Wave five is the final leg in the direction of the dominant trend. The news is almost universally positive and everyone is bullish. Unfortunately, this is when many average investors finally buy in, right before the top.

The Elliott Wave Principle is a detailed description of how financial markets behave. The description reveals that mass psychology swings from pessimism to optimism and back in a natural sequence, creating specific wave patterns in price movements. Each pattern has implications regarding the position of the market within its overall progression, past, present and future. Elliottwave analysis is a form of technical analysis and of behavioral economics that attempts to forecast trends by identifying extremes in investor psychology, tops and bottoms in markets. and other collective activities. It is named after Ralph Nelson Elliott (1871–1948), an accountant who developed the concept in the 1930s. He proposed that market prices unfold in specific patterns, which practitioners today call Elliott waves. Elliott argued that because humans are themselves rhythmical, their activities and decisions could be predicted in rhythms, too. Although many critics argue that and the Elliott wave principle is pseudoscientific.

The Donchian channel is an indicator used in market trading developed by Richard Donchian. It is formed by taking the highest high of the daily maxima and the lowest low of the daily minima of the last n days, then marking the area between those values on a chart.

The Donchian channel is a useful indicator for seeing the volatility of a market price. If a price is stable the Donchian channel will be relatively narrow. If the price fluctuates a lot the Donchian channel will be wider. Its primary use, however, is for providing signals for long and short positions. If a security trades above its highest n day high, then a long is established. If it trades below its lowest n day low, then a short is established.

Pattern day trader is a term defined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to describe a stock market trader who executes 4 (or more) day trades in 5 business days, provided the number of day trades are more than six percent of the customer's total trading activity for that same five-day period.

A pattern day trader is subject to special rules. The main rule is that in order to engage in pattern day trading you must maintain an equity balance of at least $25,000 in a margin account. The required minimum equity must be in the account prior to any daytrading activities. Brokerage firms are not required under the rule to monitor the minimum equity requirements on an intra-day basis.Three months must pass without a day trade for a person so classified to lose the restrictions imposed on them.

Rule 2520, the minimum equity requirement rule was passed on February 27, 2001 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving amendments to National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. (NASD).

A market maker is a company, or an individual, that quotes both a buy and a sell price in a financial instrument or commodity held in inventory, hoping to make a profit on the bid/offer spread, or turn.

In the United States, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX), among others, have Designated Market Makers, formerly known as specialists, who act as the official market maker for a given security. The market makers provide a required amount of liquidity to the security's market, and take the other side of trades when there are short-term buy-and-sell-side imbalances in customer orders. This helps prevent excess volatility, and in return, the specialist is granted various informational and trade execution advantages.

A pattern on bar charts resembling a cup with a handle. The cup is in the shape of a "U" and the handle has a slight downward drift. The right-hand side of the pattern has low trading volume. It can be as short as seven weeks and as long as 65 weeks.

As the stock comes up to test the old highs, the stock will incur selling pressure by the people who bought at or near the old high. This selling pressure will make the stock price trade sideways with a tendency towards a downtrend for four days to four weeks... then it takes off.

A couple points on trying to detect cup and handles: Length - Generally, cups with longer and more "U" shaped bottoms, the stronger the signal. Avoid cups with a sharp "V" bottoms. Depth - Ideally, the cup should not be too deep. Also, avoid handles which are too deep since the handles should form in the top half of the cup pattern. Volume - Volume should dry up on the decline and remain lower than average in the base of the bowl. It should then increase when the stock finally starts to make its move back up to test the old high. Retest (of old high) - doesn't have touch or come within a few ticks of old high. However, the further the top of the handle is away from the highs, the more significant the breakout needs to be.