We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. FINRA requires a 25% minimum maintenance margin, although many brokerage firms are more stringent, requiring that 30% to 40% of the securities’ total value should be available. This article will look at the difference between going long and short an asset and how to do it well. In long calls and puts, the potential downsides are more complicated. Discover the range of markets you can trade on – and learn how they work – with IG Academy’s online course. You could practise and sharpen your trading skills on a risk-free environment by creating a demo account with us.

• There is a wide variety of long and short positions that traders may adopt.
• The margin account allows you to borrow stocks from your broker.
• Later the investor expects to repurchase the stock at a lower price, pocketing the difference between the sell and buy prices.
• You purchase a security and hold it for a period, hoping for its price to increase during that time.
• If an investor has long positions, it means that the investor has bought and owns those shares of stocks.

Note that it’s your responsibility to monitor your trades, and not rely solely on alerts for any updates on your position. The SEC has warned investors about potential stock manipulation occurring on social media and websites. Some malicious actors may encourage people to short (or go long) on a stock in efforts to manipulate the market, which can cause victims to lose significant amounts of money. If you decided to short the XYZ stock, you’d need to borrow 100 shares from your broker.

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The investor later closes out the position by returning the borrowed security to the stock lender, typically by purchasing securities on the open market. In a short trade, you borrow an asset, sell it, and wait to buy it at a lower price. When you short a stock, your profit potential is limited to the amount you paid, but the risk becomes unlimited because the price could rise indefinitely. You’ll go long when you believe that the market price will rise and go short if you think it’ll fall. Typically, the research that instructs your trading plan will determine whether you should go long or short when getting exposure to an underlying asset. The investment information provided in this table is for informational and general educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment or financial advice.

• Going long and short are two popular and concepts in the financial market.
• On one side, you have the choice of going long (buy) when your trading plan provides evidence that the market price of an asset will rise.
• Buying or holding a call or put option is a long position because the investor owns the right to buy or sell the security to the writing investor at a specified price.
• The logic behind the “long” aspect of the put follows the same logic of the long call.
• 72% of retail client accounts lose money when trading CFDs, with this investment provider.

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this post may contain references to products from our partners. An investor would short a stock or other security if they believed it was set to decrease in value. Conversely, with options, they would be short if they were to sell an option and collect the premium instead of paying it.

Long Trade vs Short Trade

Short selling is riskier than being long a stock because there is no limit on how high a stock can go. As such, it is often said that the maximum loss that you can make when short selling is infinite. When a stock you are short makes a parabolic rally, the situation is known as a short squeeze.

To carry out short trades or short selling, you need to have a margin account with your broker. The margin account allows you to borrow stocks from your broker. Investors who sell stock short typically believe the price of the stock will fall and hope to buy the stock at the lower price and make a profit. If the price of the stock rises, short sellers who buy it at the higher price will incur a loss. Thus, you’ll take a short position by borrowing and selling the underlying asset and buying it back at a lower price.

In a long asset purchase, the potential downside/loss is the purchase price. Because of all these difficulties in going short, short selling is usually best left to the pros. We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service.

Long Position vs. Short Position: What’s the Difference?

Both types of trades involve buying and selling a security, although executing a long trade and a short trade requires a slightly different process. Bankrate follows a strict

editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. These are just a few examples of how combining long and short positions with different securities can create leverage and hedge against losses in a portfolio.

A put option rises in value when the underlying asset drops in value. A long put rises in value with a drop in the underlying asset. When trading with derivatives, you can get exposure with just a fraction of the full value of the trade as your deposit. Note that leverage will magnify your potential profit and loss, so there’s potential for you to lose more than your initial cash outlay.

Long Position Profits

In contrast, you would go short if you believe that the stock will decline. When you are long a stock, the maximum loss that you can make is your wager amount. For example, if you bought shares worth $10,000, the worst thing that can happen is for the stock to drop to $0. Long trades profit when the security involved increases in price. Short trades profit when the security involved decreases in price.

What are ‘going long’ and ‘going short’?

You would need to buy the security to return the shares to your broker. If the price of the security decreases, you would buy the security at a lower price than you already agreed to sell it, and the difference would be the profit. However, for most investors, long trades will generally be the better way to go. Only consider short trades if you’re an experienced trader and can handle the high risk. Usually, it is achieved by borrowing shares of stock the investor thinks will fall in value, selling them to another investor, and then buying them back to cover the position—hopefully at a lower price.

Is a long or short position in financial assets better?

One important thing to consider when using a short trading strategy is that the SEC places some restrictions on short sales. Large-scale short sales can drive down a stock’s price quickly, which led the SEC to impose the alternative uptick rule in 2010. Once you know the jargon, it’s easy to understand what a long and short position are. And it’s a useful way for investors to quickly and succinctly say how they’re positioned in a given stock. Be sure to understand the potential risks of going long and short before you make any moves.