Is it possible to go long and short on the same trade ? if so how is it done without one transaction cancelling out the other ? and is this a good idea ? are there any drawbacks ?
thank you
It was possible but the rules changed just recently. I believe it was the same time that leverage was capped at 50:1
As i understand it you cant hold two positions that conflict with each other ie the same currency pair, if you do your broker will close the first position before opening the new one
I think its called Hedging. I use Oanda and they wont let you do this on one account but openly advise you can set up a separate account and you can trade opposite to each other.
catwoman, you cant hedge in the same account. By US laws, i don’t know outside of that.
I agree with mrdrink’s advice. If your broker wont allow you to open two trades on the same currency pair, then open two seperate accounts. Perhaps with two seperate brokers, then your getting the side benefit of compairing each broker and the way in which they act.
Obviously, each trade if opened at exactly the same time will result in a net loss equal to the spread of both brokers etc and any other fixed fee’s such as guarenteed stop losses premiums.
You may even get a better spread from one broker to the next.
Im not to sure why you would want to sell and buy the same currency pair, or whatever your interested in, at the same time, but i assume thats part of your trading plan?
Im from the UK so the law is slightly different, however the exposure of spread betting is increasing each and every day, so it wont be long before we have some limitations to get used to 
Hi,
‘catwoman’ is in the UK as far as I can tell and I’m assuming she’s trading with a UK or EU broker so there should be no problem going long and short on the same pair at the same time. Just because you CAN though doesn’t mean that you SHOULD!!!
It is indeed known as ‘hedging’ but be careful i.e. this is not PROPER ‘hedging’ as the term would be used insofar as it relates to the stock market. Most times: this only serves to get the trader into trouble OR they use it to avoid a margin call. Either way: you’ve gained nothing and at most brokers, depending on the pair, not only will the nett result of the ‘hedge’ ‘go nowhere’ but you’ll also pay interest (swap) on both positions which will very slowly but steadily eat away at your capital. There is onlly one possible reason that I can think for anybody to do this and that is if you have a long term position open on a particular instrument or pair (say a trade based on the daily or weekly or monthly charts) and you also wish to trade the same instrument or pair on a short term basis as well (say on the hourly or five minute charts). I don’t do it but I do know of at least one trader that USED to be around here that used this method of ‘hedging’ and was APPARANTELY successful but I’m not sure because he was banned ages ago.
Other ‘excuses’ used for this type of ‘hedging’: I’ve heard of people ‘hedging’ their positions just before the close on a Friday ‘just in case something bad happens over the weekend’ but the point is that at SOME point you need to close the ‘hedge’ and how do you know when it’s the right time to do so??? It’s better to trade in one direction, get stopped out if you’re wrong on the trade, and ‘live to fight another day’ rather than holding on to a fully ‘hedged’ position until you THINK the time has come to close the ‘hedge’, book the profit made on the one side, and then HOPE that the second half of the position FINALLY ‘goes your way’ (it very usually never does and the trader will end up ‘hedging’ again and again until finally they give up on the trade and accept their losses while in the meantime they’ve missed other good trades because margin has been tied up for no good reason on the ‘hedge’).
To be really honest: I still don’t understand why this type of ‘hedging’ was disallowed in the US. It’s a ‘crappy’ ‘gimmick’ in my opinion and nobody should be using it anyway (except for the only conceivable reason that I can think of as I noted above and that is best left in the hands of an experienced and professional trader who is able to make it work for them).
I know this is a favourite ‘bug bear’ of ‘rhodytrader’s’ (John Forman) so I’m sure he’ll post a comment here too!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
yes you can do buy and sell the same pair at the sametime anywhere in the world at any time .read about OCO entry and find a broker who provides one on their platform .its also a very good acceptable trading stratagy gudluk
Hi,
Thanks for ‘popping in’ ‘tapmancee’ but I don’t think that was what ‘catwoman’ was asking (if I’m mistaken then I apologise). You are talking about being to PLACE ORDERS at the same time in opposite directions i.e. a long stop order and a short stop order on the same instrument or pair at the same time. ‘OCO’ or ‘Order Cancels Order’ simply means that if one of the orders is executed then the other remaining order is automatically cancelled. And yes: THIS is ‘valid’ depending on your trading system or methodology but this is NOT the same as ACTUALLY being long AND short at the same time on the same instrument or pair.
Regards,
Dale.
Thank you for that 
Interesting about OCO - not that I’ll be doing it but it seems there are ways round most things if you dig deep enough.