Competitive Trading Glossary: PWR, Field, Drawdown and More
Plain definitions of competitive trading terms used on PnL World: PnL World Rating (PWR), tournament result, field strength, divisions, liquidation and more.
Short, plain definitions of the terms used across PnL World tournaments, the rankings and these guides.
A–D
Bankroll (starting bankroll) — The virtual balance every trader at a table starts with. It is the same for everyone in a tournament, so account size never matters.
Basket (crypto basket) — The set of markets allowed in a tournament: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and BNB at launch.
Competitive trading — Trading as a sport: equal conditions, a published scoring rule and a ranking that carries results across time. See what is competitive trading.
Division — A milestone on the PWR scale, from Bronze to World Class. A trader is placed after five rated tournaments.
Drawdown (maximum drawdown) — The largest fall of your result equity from its own previous peak during a tournament. It breaks ties between equal results.
E–F
Entry — Joining a tournament. Entry stays open while a tournament is running.
Field — All traders in one tournament.
Field strength — A multiplier applied to rating points. It grows with the rating level of your opponents, the share of verified traders and the size of the field.
Format — The length of a tournament: Hourly, 4-Hour, Daily, Weekly, PnL Monthly, PnL Quarterly and the yearly PnL World Championship.
Format weight — Rating points to the winner of a format: 25, 40, 75, 250, 1,000, 3,000 and 10,000 from Hourly to the World Championship.
Free Arena — An always-on practice table: virtual bankroll, no clock, no rating.
Funding — Periodic payments on perpetual positions, paid or received as on an exchange. Part of your result.
H–L
Handle — Your public name on PnL World. Shown with ✓ once you are verified.
Inactive — A mark for traders with no rated tournament for 180 days. Points are kept; the mark disappears with the next rated finish.
Leverage cap — The maximum leverage allowed: 20× in short formats, 10× in long championships.
Liquidation — A forced close of a position when its margin runs out, following exchange rules on the mark price. An account that a liquidation leaves with 10% or less of its starting balance counts as liquidated and ranks below every account that was not.
M–P
Mark price — The reference price used to value open positions and trigger liquidation.
Place share — The share of the format weight a place earns: 100% for 1st, 65% for 2nd, 45% for 3rd, falling to 3% from 21st down.
PnL — Profit and loss. On PnL World, the brand name is written PnL, with a lowercase n.
PnL World Championship — The yearly flagship tournament. The 2027 edition runs from 1 January to 31 December 2027. See the championship guide.
PnL World Rating (PWR) — A trader's career total of rating points: format weight × place share × field strength, added up over every rated finish. Points never expire. See PWR explained.
PnL World Rankings — The public world ranking of verified traders by PWR, with all-time, Today, Week and Month boards.
R–W
Rated finish — Any finished rated tournament. Every rated finish adds PWR points.
Result equity — Your account value counting closed trades, fees, funding and open positions at the mark price as if closed now, including the exit fee.
Slippage — The difference between the expected and the actual fill price of a market order, from the depth of the live order book.
Standings — The live table of places in a tournament. Public throughout.
Tournament result — The return on your starting bankroll, measured on result equity. It decides your place. See how tournament results are scored.
Verified (✓) — A trader who has confirmed they are a unique person (phone verification). Only verified traders appear on the World Rankings: one person, one rating.
World No. 1 — The trader at the top of the PnL World Rankings.
PnL World tournaments are simulated: trades are executed against live market data, but no real-money positions are opened on any exchange. Nothing here is financial advice.