Glossary
Every term, once.
The words a reader trips on.
- Kill switch
- The pre-defined exit attached to every published name: the line at which the thesis is simply wrong.
Checks
- Structure
- Price gate cleared, or composite ≥ 55. That is the price setup, not a second verb.
- R : R
- Reward-to-risk: distance to target divided by distance to stop. Public names need R:R ≥ 1.0.
Risk & sizing
- Earnings-adjusted stop
- A stop widened to sit outside the expected earnings move, so a known event is not a random exit.
- Borrow fee
- The annualised cost to short a name. A spiking fee signals crowding, and squeeze risk.
- Risk unit
- ATR is the size of the stop. Stops and targets are multiples of the typical daily move, so a volatile name is not treated like a utility.
Technicals
- Composite score
- A single 0–100 number folding all eight engine inputs together. The headline read on a name.
- Component scores
- Each of the eight inputs normalised to 0–100 before weighting, so a MACD of 84 and an RSI of 58 sit on the same scale. RSI is the one input whose raw value happens to already live on that scale.
- Edge score
- A second 0–100 read that discounts the composite by expected-value factors: R:R, catalyst distance, and how extended the name already is. A 91 composite with a 52 edge means strong setup, mediocre expected value.
- RVOL
- Relative volume: today’s pace measured against the 20-day average. Above 2× is real participation.
- Bollinger squeeze
- A volatility low where price bands compress, flagging a coiled name about to expand.
- ATR
- Average true range; the typical daily move, used to size every stop and target.
Value
- Trailing P/E
- Price divided by the last twelve months of earnings. Slow, history-looking multiple.
- Forward P/E
- Price divided by consensus next-twelve-months earnings. Our preferred value read when available.
- CHEAP / FAIR / RICH
- Vs the sector median forward PE on the scored board (≤0.8× cheap, ≥1.25× rich). Falls back to trailing PE or absolute bands if no sector median.
- Value × rotation
- Whether momentum-leading sectors are trading at cheap or rich multiples: chase risk vs mean-reversion setup.
Flow (badge)
- Sweep
- A single options order filled across multiple exchanges at once: urgency, usually one informed buyer.
- Dark-pool print
- A large block crossed off-exchange. Prints above VWAP read as accumulation, below as distribution.
- Net call premium
- Dollar premium paid for calls minus puts. Our cleanest gauge of directional conviction in the options tape.
- Gamma squeeze
- A feedback loop where dealer hedging of short calls forces them to buy the underlying, accelerating the move.
Catalysts (badge)
- PDUFA
- The FDA’s decision deadline on a drug application: a hard, calendar-fixed binary event.
- Earnings window
- The session and after-hours around a report, when realised volatility and gap risk spike.
- Form 4
- An SEC insider-transaction filing. Clustered open-market buys are the signal worth reading.
- Index reconstitution
- Scheduled additions and deletions that force mechanical buying and selling from passive funds.
Reader words
- Thesis Map
- A question A24 still holds, with a way to be proved wrong.
- The Long Read
- Reported essays. Session notes live on Changelog.
- Changelog
- What changed on the site. Newest first.
- Board stamp
- A 20-day structure call on one name. Not a grade of the theme.
- Held
- A map that still has an open question.
- The book
- Maps opened with the 26 August essays. Short ones stay off the index until they are written.
- Hypothesis
- A claim written before the outcome, dated, sitting on a map.
- Invalidation
- The dated fact that would make the claim late.
- A number A24 recorded. Not a forecast.
- Owned strip
- The daily Yahoo closes A24 keeps. Pearson and usual/break come from this file, not a live poll.
- Data wall
- Named series on a map. Hidden when every tile is still pending.
- Checkpoint
- A dated test on a map.
London & New York