Reference

Glossary

Definitions for the futures, NinjaTrader, and algo terms used on this site.

A

ADX: Average Directional Index. Indicator that measures trend strength regardless of direction. HuntersAlgo strategies use ADX as a filter: entries only fire when trend strength clears a configurable threshold, screening out range-bound chop.
ATR: Average True Range. Volatility indicator measuring the typical range of price movement over a window of bars. HuntersAlgo uses ATR for both entry filtering (require expansion) and exit logic (ATR-based stop and target distance).

Backtest: Historical simulation of a trading strategy against past market data. NinjaTrader 8 Strategy Analyzer is the engine; HuntersAlgo backtests use the same NinjaScript assembly we ship to subscribers, so results are reproducible on your own workstation.
Break-even: Stop-loss adjustment that moves the stop to the entry price (or entry plus a tick) once the trade has moved a configurable distance in your favor. Removes downside risk on a position that has already proven the thesis.

Drawdown: Peak-to-trough decline in account equity. Maximum drawdown is the worst observed peak-to-trough during the backtest period. The HunterBreakOut NQ run shows a $3,495 max drawdown — that's roughly what to expect, not a guaranteed floor.

EMA: Exponential Moving Average. Moving average that weights recent bars more heavily. HunterEMA uses EMA crossover entries with multi-timeframe trend alignment and ADX trend-strength gating.
ES: CME E-mini S&P 500 futures contract. $50 per point. One of the two most-traded equity index futures and a primary HuntersAlgo target market.

Force-close: A configured time at which any open position is closed regardless of P&L. HuntersAlgo strategies use force-close to prevent overnight exposure and avoid holding through scheduled news releases.

GC: CME gold futures contract. $100 per point. HunterGC is the regression-based strategy purpose-built for GC's session structure and volatility profile.

HWID: Hardware ID. Deterministic fingerprint computed from your CPU and motherboard. HuntersAlgo licenses are HWID-locked: each license activates on up to two devices, with one transfer per 30 days.

Kinetick: Real-time market data feed for NinjaTrader, included free with active NinjaTrader licenses. Recommended provider for HuntersAlgo strategies because the unfiltered tick data matches the assumptions the algorithms were validated against.

NinjaTrader 8: Windows-native futures trading platform. Hosts the NinjaScript C# assemblies that HuntersAlgo strategies compile to, with direct broker-gateway routing rather than webhook intermediaries.
NQ: CME E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract. $20 per point. The other primary HuntersAlgo target market alongside ES.
NinjaScript: NinjaTrader 8's strategy and indicator development framework. Effectively a C# DSL with a strict lifecycle (SetDefaults → Configure → DataLoaded → OnBarUpdate → Terminated). Every HuntersAlgo NT8 strategy is a single NinjaScript Strategy class.

Pine Script: TradingView's charting and alerting language. HuntersAlgo strategies are also compiled to Pine Script for the TradingView side of the suite, where execution is webhook-driven rather than direct-broker.
Profit factor: Gross profit divided by gross loss across a backtest. A profit factor above 1.0 means more dollars won than lost; the HunterBreakOut NQ backtest shows 1.62. Profit factor degrades with realistic slippage assumptions, so a backtest factor of 1.62 is closer to 1.4–1.5 in practice.
Profit target: A pre-set price at which a winning position automatically closes. HuntersAlgo supports static (fixed-tick), trailing, and ATR-scaled targets, with optional partial take-profit on the first half of the position.

Sharpe ratio: Risk-adjusted return metric: average excess return divided by the standard deviation of returns. The HunterBreakOut backtest shows 0.97. Sharpe is sensitive to the period and the risk-free rate assumption — read it as "decent" rather than "great", and Sortino is usually the more useful sibling for asymmetric strategies.
SI: CME silver futures contract. $5,000 per dollar of price (5,000-ounce contract). HunterSI is purpose-built for SI's lower-liquidity sessions and larger spread.
Slippage: Difference between the price you expected at signal time and the price you actually filled at. Always negative on aggressive orders. The single biggest source of drift between backtest performance and live performance, and why HuntersAlgo recommends paper-trading for 5–7 days before scaling up live.
Sortino ratio: Risk-adjusted return metric like Sharpe, but only penalizing downside volatility. HunterBreakOut shows 5.77, which suggests upside variance dominates downside variance — typical for breakout systems with cleanly-cut losers and asymmetric winners.

Trailing stop: Stop-loss that moves toward the entry price as the trade moves in your favor, locking in gains while leaving room for the trend to continue. HuntersAlgo trailing stops can be tick-based or ATR-scaled.

Walk-forward: Optimization technique that splits the historical data into rolling in-sample and out-of-sample windows. Each parameter set is fit on the in-sample period and validated on the immediately following out-of-sample period. Reduces curve-fitting versus a single all-data optimization.
Whop: Subscription-billing platform that hosts the HuntersAlgo storefront, processes payments, and emits webhook events the platform listens to for activation/cancellation. Reviews and the canonical buyer count live on the Whop product page.

If a term used elsewhere on the site isn't defined here, send us a note and we'll add it.