Glossary

A reference for the terminology used across FlowState Pro. Some terms are standard across futures trading; others reflect how we use them specifically inside the platform. Where a FlowState-specific meaning differs from common usage, that's called out explicitly.

Index

A · D · E · F · H · I · K · L · M · N · O · P · R · S · T · V

Methodology

Market Profile

A method developed by Peter Steidlmayer for organising price and time into a distribution that shows where the market spent the most time during a session. The resulting shape (often visualised as a TPO chart or volume profile) highlights value areas, points of control, and acceptance or rejection of price. FlowState Pro derives several of its key levels from market profile concepts.

Initial Balance (IB)

The price range established during the first hour of a regular trading session. Acts as a reference range for the rest of the day: breakouts above or below it often signal directional intent, while a session that stays within IB tends to favour mean-reversion approaches. FlowState Pro computes IB per instrument using each market's own session timezone (e.g. Europe/Berlin for DAX).

Session Bias

A directional lean for a given session, derived from how the prior sessions (Asia, London) developed. FlowState Pro publishes a session bias signal that estimates the probability of NY direction conditional on what Asia and London did. Bias is informational, not a trade signal — it tells you what the historical base rate looks like given the current setup.

Regime

The behavioural state of the market at a point in time, classified into a fixed taxonomy (see below). Distinct from "trend" or "volatility" in common usage — in FlowState Pro, regime is a structured classification output by a model, not a discretionary read.

Regime Classification

The output of FlowState Pro's regime classifier. The six possible values are:

• UNRESOLVED — Insufficient information to classify (e.g. pre-market, mid-formation windows like IB still building).
• RANGING — Two-sided, mean-reverting price action contained within a definable range.
• VOLATILE — Elevated price dispersion without clear directional intent. Wide bars, frequent reversals.
• MEAN_REVERSION — Active fade-back-to-value behaviour around a reference level.
• TREND_EXPANSION — Directional move with expanding range; the early-acceleration phase of a trend.
• TREND — Sustained directional move with persistent one-sided participation.

The classifier is trained on labelled session data; regime values are not discretionary judgements.

Platform

Pre-Trade Intelligence

FlowState Pro's positioning. The dashboard is designed to inform decisions before you place a trade — surfacing regime, bias, and key levels — rather than to execute, manage, or report on trades after the fact.

Historical Mode

A dashboard mode that lets you review any prior session with the same signals and levels that were live at the time. Useful for journalling, backtesting your own setups against the regime taxonomy, or sanity-checking why a signal fired.

Live Mode

The default dashboard mode. Streams current-session price, regime, bias, and levels for the supported instruments.

Signal

A structured, typed event emitted by the FlowState Pro backend when a defined condition is met (regime change, session bias publication, level cross, etc.). Signals are persisted and addressable via the pub/sub architecture.

Sample Data

Indicative price data shown on the landing page and in non-authenticated previews. Not a live feed and not suitable for trading decisions. Look for the "Sample Data" badge on the ticker.

Onboarding Tour

A five-step coach-mark walkthrough that introduces new users to the dashboard's main components. Fires once per user on first login.

Help Panel

A slide-out panel accessible from the dashboard that surfaces contextual help, tooltips, and links to the FAQ.

Market Structure

Futures

Standardised, exchange-traded contracts to buy or sell an asset at a defined price on a defined future date. FlowState Pro covers three index futures markets: ES, NQ, and DAX.

ES

The E-mini S&P 500 futures contract. Traded on CME; settles to the S&P 500 index. The most heavily traded equity index future globally.

NQ

The E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures contract. Traded on CME; settles to the Nasdaq-100 index. Higher beta than ES, dominated by large-cap tech.

DAX

Futures contract on the German DAX 40 equity index. Traded on Eurex during European hours. Uses Europe/Berlin session timing inside FlowState Pro.

Tick

The minimum price increment for a futures contract. ES ticks in 0.25 index points ($12.50 per contract); NQ in 0.25 points ($5 per contract); DAX in 0.5 points (€12.50 per contract).

Asia Session

The overnight trading window dominated by Asian market hours. Often lower-volume and range-bound; how it develops feeds into FlowState Pro's session bias estimate for the day.

London Session

The European trading window. For DAX, this is the primary session; for ES and NQ, it's the lead-in to NY.

NY Session

The New York trading window. The most actively traded session for ES and NQ. Session bias signals estimate the probability of NY direction conditional on prior sessions.

Value Area

The price range within a session where approximately 70% of trading activity occurred. A common reference zone derived from market profile — moves into value tend to find acceptance; moves rejected from value often signal directional intent.

Point of Control (POC)

The single price within a session that traded the most volume (or, in TPO-based profiles, the most time). A primary reference level — acts as a magnet during ranging sessions and a pivot during trending ones.

Key Level

A pre-computed reference price that FlowState Pro surfaces on the dashboard. Derived from a mix of market profile (POC, value area edges) and prior-session structure (overnight high/low, prior-day high/low).

Liquidity

The depth of resting orders available at given prices. Affects how easily a position can be entered or exited without moving the market. Generally highest during NY session for ES/NQ and the European open for DAX.

Risk & Execution

Prop Firm

A proprietary trading firm that provides traders with capital to trade after passing an evaluation. FlowState Pro is used by traders working with prop firms; common platforms include Topstep and Apex.

Funded Account

A live trading account at a prop firm, granted after passing the firm's evaluation. Trades on the firm's capital under its risk rules.

Drawdown

The peak-to-trough decline in account equity over a given period. Prop firms enforce maximum drawdown limits as a core risk rule — breaching them ends the account.

Trailing Drawdown

A drawdown limit that moves up with account high-water marks but does not move back down. Common at Topstep and Apex; the effect is that as you make money, your loss tolerance from the peak stays fixed while your loss tolerance from the starting balance grows.

Not Investment Advice

A statement that the content on FlowState Pro is informational and analytical, not a personalised recommendation to buy or sell. Users make their own trading decisions and bear their own risk. See the disclaimer for the full statement.

Missing a term? Let us know and we'll add it.