Bagholder

Someone still holding an altcoin after a pump and dump crash. Can also just refer to someone holding a coin that is sinking in value with few future prospects.

Bear Trap

This is a manipulation of a stock or commodity by investors. Traders who “set” the bear trap do so by selling stock until it fools other investors into thinking its upward trend in value has stopped, or is dropping. Those who fall into the bear trap will often sell at that time, fearing a further drop in value. At that point, the investors who set the trap will buy at the low price and will release the trap—which is essentially a false bear market. Once the bear trap is released, the value will even out, or even climb.

Bear market

A market that is in a downtrend (prices are going down) The term relates to the direction that a bear attacks. (Bears attack by swiping downwards with their claws.)

Bearish

An expectation that price is going to decrease.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is decentralized and distributed software that allows for trustless peer-to-peer global financial transactions and record keeping. It can be described as a blockchain based smart contract system with a native cryptocurrency token.

Block

Blocks are files where data pertaining to a coin network is permanently recorded. A block records some or all of the most recent coin transactions that have not yet entered any prior blocks. Thus a block is like a page of a ledger or record book. Each time a block is ‘completed’, it gives way to the next block in the blockchain. A block is thus a permanent store of records which, once written, cannot be altered or removed.

Block Explorer

a search engine for a cryptocurrency, block explorers allow you to query transactions, addresses and other information.

Block Height

Blocks are added to the blockchain sequentially. The current block number is called the block height.

Block Size

Block size describes the amount of data that can be added to a given block on the blockchain. Bigger blocks allow for more transactions to be stored in blocks, but as a trade-off, more hash power is required to mine a block. This makes transactions faster, but one can argue centralizes mining. In crypto, almost everything is “a trade-off,” just like IRL (In Real Life).

Block Reward

A reward that is given to a miner after successfully hashing a transaction block.

Blockchain (see guide)

Blockchains are distributed ledgers, secured by cryptography. They are essentially public databases that everyone can access and read, but the data can only be updated by the data owners. Instead of the data residing on a single centralized server, the data is copied across thousands and thousands of computers worldwide.

Bollinger Band

A margin around the price of a crypto that helps indicate when a coin is overbought or oversold.

Bots

Almost all exchanges let users program or use a pre-programmed software that can interact with crypto platforms via an API. One type of software, a type that can execute trades on exchanges, is called a “trading bot” (often referred to as simply a “bot”). It may seem like cheating, and in certain hands, it can sure feel like it, but bots are important in many ways too. They can help implement strategies like trailing stop losses for you, and they can help “make markets” (all those little buys and sells that prevent wide spreads in a given market are generally “market maker” / “accumulation” bots). Like people, bots aren’t good or bad, they are neutral and depend on the ethics of the user.

Bull Market

A market that is in an uptrend. (Prices are going up) The term relates to the direction in which a bull attacks (horns low to the ground, a bull strikes upwards)

Bullish

An expectation that price is going to increase.

Buying the Dip

If you are going to average into a coin, can’t do better than buying the dip (especially in a bull market, in a stagnant market, or at what you think might be the end of a bear market). This means buying when the price goes down. For building a long-term position, it works much better than buying when the price goes up. It also helps the market as you are part of the force stopping the dip instead of part of the force causing the run-up.

Also known as BTFD! – Buy the F*cking Dip.