BackQuant Glossary
Short
A position that profits when price falls. Selling spot, going short a perp, owning a put, or being short a call are all short positions. Short positions in crypto carry tail risk because upside is unbounded.
Related terms
Spot
The current cash market price of an asset for immediate delivery. Spot is the underlying reference for derivatives pricing. Crypto spot trades 24/7 across hundreds of venues, with index prices aggregating across the deepest ones.
Settlement
The expiry-time process by which an option pays out its final intrinsic value. On Deribit, settlement occurs at 08:00 UTC using a half-hour time-weighted average of the index price. Settlement is the moment dealer hedging flows release.
Slippage
The difference between the expected fill price and the actual fill price, usually due to thin order book depth. Slippage is the hidden tax on aggressive execution and grows with trade size and market stress.
SOL
Solana, the third-largest crypto asset by options open interest. SOL options markets are smaller and less liquid than BTC or ETH but growing, with concentrated venues on Deribit and select altcoin-focused platforms.
Speed
A third-order Greek measuring the rate of change of gamma with respect to spot. Speed becomes meaningful for very short-dated options where gamma can shift dramatically with even small price moves. Used by sophisticated dealers to hedge convexity risk.
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See Short live on the terminal.
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