Long and Short of Futures

There are phrases commonly used in trading futures. These phrases are quite unique to the markets of futures. Below are some of these phrases:

Long If the day trader entered into a long futures type of contract, they joined the trade by simply purchasing the contract, and they hope that the rate will increase. Day traders usually exchange the use of the words long and buy. There is some software for trading where the button for entering a trade is called "buy" and there are other softwares where the entry icon or button is called "long". The name long is usually used for describing a position which is open; this implies that the trader for example used to have a trade that is active when they bought the contract for the market of the futures for YM Dow Jones.

Short If the day trader is into a short futures type of contract, they joined the trade by selling the contract and they hope that the rate will decrease. Day traders usually exchange the use of the words short and sell. Even with softwares for trading there are some which marks the entry button for trading as "sell" while there are other softwares which mark the entry icon or button for trading as "short". The name short is usually used in describing a position which is also open just like "the ZG is short", this would imply a trader having an active position when they sold the contract of the futures market of ZG gold.

To Short or Sell Remember that the markets for futures permit shorting, this pertains to that process of joining a trade through selling a particular contract, and leaving the trade by purchasing another contract. This is a unique process for the markets of futures, as this will not be allowed for most of the stock markets. Shorting lets the day trader to gain profits irregardless of the market's movement which is either going up or going down. This is the reason why the day traders are commonly concerned about the market's continuous move rather than the direction of where it is going.

The process of shorting is also applied to other trades with many contracts, with the exception of having many separate entry points and exit points. Like a trade that has five contracts could be entered with three varying prices and then exited with only a single price, or it can be entered with a single price and exited with many varying prices. The important need is that the same amount of contracts should remain the same when entering and exiting by this way the trade is fully completed through a complete exit.