Glossary
Memecoin and crypto futures glossary
The terms you will meet in memecoin alerts and futures signals, explained in one or two sentences. For the full picture, each block links to the article that goes deeper.
Memecoins and launchpads
- Memecoin
- A token built around a meme, a joke or a trend, with no product behind it. Its price depends almost entirely on attention, which makes it extremely volatile: it can multiply or lose all of its value within minutes.
- Launchpad
- A platform where anyone can create a token and put it on sale instantly, without providing liquidity. pump.fun, on Solana, is the best known.
- Bonding curve
- A formula that sets a token's price based on how many units have already been sold: every buy raises the price and every sell lowers it. It is how new tokens are sold on a launchpad. What is a bonding curve.
- Curve (%)
- How much of the bonding curve's journey is already complete. At 100% the token graduates.
- Graduation (graduating, bonding)
- The moment the bonding curve completes and the accumulated liquidity is migrated to an open market (on pump.fun, a PumpSwap pool). From then on the price is driven by supply and demand, not by the formula.
- Market cap
- The token's total value: current price multiplied by circulating supply. With memecoins it changes every second and says nothing about how much real money sits behind it (that is what liquidity tells you).
- Holders
- The wallets that own the token. How many there are matters less than how the supply is spread among them.
- Top 10
- The share of supply held by the ten largest wallets (excluding the liquidity pool and burn addresses). The higher it is, the easier it is for a few people to crash the price by selling.
- The percentage of the token held by the wallet that created it. A dev holding a lot can sell everything at the moment of peak liquidity.
- Bundle
- A coordinated buy from several wallets in the same block as the launch, usually by the creator. It makes it look like there are many holders when they are the same person.
- Contract (CA)
- The token's unique address on the blockchain (contract address). It is the only reliable identifier: names and logos get copied; the address does not. How to check a memecoin contract.
- The permission to create new tokens. If it is still active, the creator can increase the supply and dilute everyone else. You want it revoked.
- The permission to freeze the tokens in any wallet. If it is active, you could end up with a token you cannot move or sell. It should be revoked too.
- Liquidity
- The money deposited in the pool that lets people buy and sell the token. With thin liquidity, any sell moves the price a lot and you may not find anyone to sell to.
- Liquidity pool
- A decentralized exchange contract that holds both assets of a pair (for example, the token and SOL) so people can swap one for the other without a seller on the other side.
- LP tokens
- The receipt a liquidity provider gets for depositing into a pool, which lets them withdraw it later. If they are burned or locked, nobody can drain the pool.
- Rug pull
- A scam in which whoever controls the token or its liquidity takes the money and leaves buyers holding a worthless token. It usually gives warning: active authorities, liquidity held by the creator, concentrated holders.
- Honeypot
- A contract that lets you buy but not sell. Before you get in, check that other wallets have actually sold.
- DEX
- Decentralized exchange: you swap tokens directly from your wallet against a liquidity pool, with no account to open. PumpSwap and Raydium are DEXs on Solana.
- Sniper
- A bot or person that buys a token the instant it launches in order to sell shortly after to the people who arrive late.
- Slippage
- The difference between the price you see and the price you actually pay, because your trade moves the price or the market changed while it executed. On thinly traded tokens it can be huge.
- DYOR / DD
- Do your own research and due diligence: investigate before you decide. In an alert, "🔍 DD" means some data is unverified.
- FOMO
- Fear of missing out: the urge to buy a token that has already pumped. It is the emotion that loses the most money in memecoins.
- Memecoin alert
- A message with a new token's data: curve, market cap, trades, holders, top 10, dev share, links and contract. It is information for you to decide on, not a recommendation. This is what AlphaEngine alerts look like.
Futures and risk management
- Perpetual futures
- A contract for betting that an asset's price (for example, BTC) will go up or down, with no expiry date and with leverage. You do not buy the asset; you trade its price.
- Long / Short
- Long: you profit if the price rises. Short: you profit if it falls. In futures you can open either.
- Limit entry
- An order that fixes the price you want to enter at. It fills on its own when the price gets there; if it never does, you never enter. The opposite of a market order, which fills at whatever price is available.
- Stop (stop-loss)
- The price at which the trade closes automatically if it goes against you. It is what caps the loss at what you chose to risk. Without a stop, a single trade can wipe out the account.
- Take-profit
- The price at which the trade closes automatically in profit. You set it when you open, so the decision is not made in the heat of the moment.
- Target (T1, T2, T3)
- How far away the take-profit is: T1 near, T2 mid-distance, T3 far. The further it is, the bigger the gain if it gets there, and the lower the odds that it does.
- Leverage
- A multiplier that lets you open a position larger than the money you put up. At 10x, 100 USDT controls 1,000 USDT. It multiplies gains and losses alike, and brings the liquidation price closer.
- Margin
- The money from your account locked up as collateral for an open position. Position size divided by leverage.
- Cross margin
- A mode in which your whole futures balance backs every position. It survives longer before liquidation, but a trade without a stop can eat the entire account.
- Isolated margin
- A mode in which only the margin assigned to that position is at stake. If it gets liquidated, you lose that margin and nothing more.
- Liquidation
- The exchange force-closing your position when the loss uses up the margin. You lose the trade's margin (isolated) or it can hit the whole account (cross). With high leverage the liquidation price sits very close to the entry.
- Position size
- The total value of the trade in USDT: margin × leverage. It is worked out from how much you accept to lose and where the stop is. Position size calculator.
- R (risk per trade)
- What you lose if the stop is hit: 1R. It is the unit for measuring results: a trade that made twice what it risked is +2R; a loser is −1R. It is usually set as a small percentage of the account.
- Risk-reward ratio
- How much you can make for every unit you risk: with a stop at 1% and a take-profit at 3%, the ratio is 1:3.
- Break-even
- Moving the stop to the entry price once the trade is in profit, so that if it reverses it closes without a loss.
- Funding rate
- A periodic payment between longs and shorts on perpetual futures that keeps the contract price close to the asset's price. Depending on your side and the moment, you pay it or receive it.
- Drawdown
- The fall from the account's highest point to the next lowest one. It measures the worst losing stretch, usually in R or as a percentage.
- Signal
- A message with a proposed trade: side, limit entry, stop, take-profit, target, leverage and percentage of the account. It is information; whether to execute it is your decision.
- Score
- A 0–100 grade a system gives a trade according to how closely it meets the system's rules. It is not the probability of winning.
Risk warning. Memecoins and leveraged futures are high-risk products: you can lose everything you put in. This glossary is general information, not investment advice.
See the AlphaEngine memecoin alerts
Updated: