Agentic trading glossary
Agent
A program that trades for you by rules. On Circuit an agent runs on a schedule or continuously, requests actions through Circuit's SDK, and never sees your private keys.
Agentic trading
Trading in which an AI agent watches markets and places orders within limits you set, instead of you placing each order.
Backtest
Running a strategy against recorded market data to see how it would have traded. Circuit backtests agents on recorded Hyperliquid and Lighter markets.
Basis
The difference between a futures or perpetual price and the spot price of the same asset.
Breakout
A price move beyond a recent range, such as the highest high of the last 20 candles. Breakout strategies enter in the direction of the move.
Bridge
Moving assets from one blockchain to another.
Delta-neutral
A position whose value does not change with the price of the underlying asset, for example holding an asset and shorting the same amount of its perp. Delta-neutral strategies aim to earn funding or yield rather than price moves.
Dollar-cost averaging (DCA)
Buying a fixed dollar amount on a fixed schedule regardless of price.
Funding rate
A periodic payment between longs and shorts on a perpetual futures market that keeps its price near spot. When funding is positive, longs pay shorts.
Gas
The fee paid to a blockchain to process a transaction.
Grid trading
Placing buy orders at intervals below the price and selling each a set step higher, to profit from a range-bound market.
Isolated margin
Margin assigned to a single position, so a liquidation can only lose that position's margin.
Leverage
Trading a position larger than your margin. $20 of margin at 10x is $200 of exposure.
Limit order
An order to buy or sell at a set price or better. Immediate-or-cancel fills what crosses now and cancels the rest; good-til-canceled rests on the book; post-only rests only as a maker.
Liquidation
The forced closing of a leveraged position when its margin can no longer cover losses.
Market order
An order that fills immediately at the best available prices.
Mean reversion
A strategy that bets prices or ratios return toward their average after stretching away from it.
Momentum
A strategy that buys assets that are rising and sells those that are falling.
Paper trading
Running a strategy on live markets with simulated funds. Every Circuit agent starts in paper trading.
Passkey
A phishing-resistant credential stored in your device or password manager. Circuit uses passkeys to sign in and to authorize every money action.
Perpetual futures (perps)
Futures contracts with no expiry that track an asset's price through funding payments, traded with leverage, long or short.
Prediction market
A market where shares in an outcome, such as an election result, pay $1 if it happens and nothing if it does not. Polymarket is the largest.
Private key
The secret that controls a crypto wallet. Whoever holds it controls the funds.
RSI
The Relative Strength Index, a 0–100 momentum indicator. Readings above 70 are often called overbought and below 30 oversold.
Self-custody
Holding your own assets in a wallet you control, rather than with an exchange, broker or fund.
Slippage
The difference between the expected price of an order and the price it actually fills at.
Spot
Buying or selling the asset itself for immediate settlement, as opposed to a derivative such as a perp.
Stablecoin
A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar, such as USDC or USDT.
Stop-loss
An order or rule that closes a position once the price moves a set amount against it.
Take-profit
An order or rule that closes a position once the price moves a set amount in its favor.