Articles · 2026-11-04

Memecoin trading discipline glossary: drawdown, circuit breaker, R, SQN, rug pull

Short definitions for memecoin traders: drawdown, circuit breaker, cool-down, R-multiple, expectancy, SQN, FOMO, rug pull, bundles and more.

Plain definitions of terms that come up in trading discipline and on-chain memecoin trading. Where TradeGuard has a matching feature, a note says so.

Discipline and risk

Drawdown	How far you have fallen from a high, usually as a percentage. Up $100 at best today and now up $60: a 40% intraday drawdown.
Max drawdown	The largest fall from any high to a later low over a period. How bad a strategy feels at its worst.
Circuit breaker	A forced stop for a while once a condition is hit. TradeGuard's drawdown breaker trips on drawdown, a losing streak or a daily loss limit.
Cool-down	The period after a breaker or a break when you open nothing new.
Daily loss limit	The most you allow yourself to lose in a day. Decide when your trading day starts.
Trade-frequency cap	A maximum number of trades per hour or per day.
Hot hand	Overconfidence after a winning streak, often followed by bigger size. TradeGuard has a hot-hand warning.
Profit lock	Moving part of new profit out once it reaches a threshold, so a bad streak cannot take it all back.
Revenge trading	Rushing the next trade to win back a loss, with bigger size and lower standards.
Tilt	When emotion has taken over your decisions.
FOMO	Fear of missing out: chasing a move against your own plan.

Win rate	Winning trades as a share of closed trades. On its own it says little.
Payoff ratio	Average win ÷ average loss. With ratio b, the break-even win rate is 1 ÷ (1 + b).
R-multiple	A trade's result in units of risk. A common definition: risk = cost × stop-loss percentage.
Expectancy	Win rate × average win − loss rate × average loss, usually in R. Below zero means you are slowly losing.
SQN	System quality number. A common definition: mean R ÷ standard deviation of R × square root of the number of trades.
Net PnL	Profit and loss after fees and gas.

Contract address (CA)	The token's address on chain. Many tokens share a name; identify them by address.
Liquidity	The funds in the pool available to trade against. Thin liquidity means one trade can move the price a lot.
Liquidity floor	A minimum liquidity below which alerts are skipped. TradeGuard's default is $10,000.
Rug pull	Liquidity is pulled from the pool and the price collapses toward zero.
Bundle	Several wallets controlled by the same people buying at launch to fake a spread-out holder base.
Trenches	The list of brand-new tokens on platforms such as GMGN.
Paper trading	Practising with simulated funds at live prices. TradeGuard's extension does this on GMGN pages.
API key trading permission	The permission to place orders. A read-only tool does not need it; a key without it cannot trade even if it leaks.

Critical alert	The only iOS notification level that plays through silent mode and Do Not Disturb. Bark can send them.
Time-sensitive notification	An iOS level that breaks through Focus but not the silent switch.
Quiet hours	A window when alerts still arrive, silently.
Nagging	Repeating a reminder every few minutes until it is handled or a limit is reached.