Is it better to go Long or go Short when trading?

Beginner Questions
1

hello everyone,

im kinda stuck, im new to trading and am learning, reading book got a demo account ect ect,

but i think that i cant get around is, what better, to go Long or to GO short when trading smal ammount ?

hope to hear some good responces,

thanks:D

2

well
if your analysis tells you that the price will go up then you go long; and
if your analysis tells you that the price will go down then you would go short,
and then just as importantly if you cant make up your mind you sit on the sidelines until you know.

it has nothing to do with the amount you are trading it is a simple decision - should i buy = i think it will go up
should i sell =i think it will go down

3

thanks mate and ye you are true i just had some thing in the back of my mind thinking theres like a stratergy for it.

cheers mate:D

4

I read and hear that the trend is your friend, - don’t go against it, unless you have very good reason.
I agree with trav72’s post.

5

Is it better to go Long or go Short when trading ??

yes

6

You cannot do one without doing the other. Remember that in forex if you are long EUR/USD, for example, you are simultaneously long the Euro and short the Dollar.

7

Hi,

Go long or short? That is a decision when you have analysed the instrument (say GBP/USD whatever) chart and you are in a position to trade. However, let us get few things straight mate:

[ul]When you trade do not risk more than 2% of your capital for all your open positions (money management). See the thread “An approach to risk management” for further discussion on this[/ul]

[ul]Follow your plan - you must have one, without any exceptions (trade management)[/ul]
[ul]Take only the trades that are in compliance with your technical signals. That will tell you to go long or short
[/ul]
[ul]Trade your chart, never your opinion[/ul]
[ul]Try to be good at one or two instruments only (as opposed to jack of all trades). For example I do GBP/USD as main and GBP/JPY occasionally. This gives me the opportunity to understand the price action and GBP volatility. It also allows me to build a mental history of the behaviour of GBP[/ul]
[ul]Adopt a method (indicators and otherwise) that works for you. If your indicators and your timeframes are wrong, try to understand where you went wrong as opposed to jumping to any new indicators etc. By analysing where you went wrong you will gain much more insight than from adopting another method immediately[/ul]
[ul]Accept the fact that there is no such thing as a magical method. The net is dotted with “various take this and try this method”. However, before trying these free gifts make an effort to understand what they convey and why should they work when 10s of other similar methods didn’t! If I follow an indicator mechanically without understanding the basics of what it is supposed to do and expect miracles, then there is a likelihood that I believe in father Christmas as well! [/ul]

Good luck,

Mich

8

Agreed with the above posts.

Whether to go long or short is situational. As mentioned in an above post, a strong down trend may indicate a better move would be to go SHORT; this is good when the trend is continuing. If the trend continued, it is obvious a LONG entry would not be better.

Just an example to help put it into perspective.

9

For some reason this concept alludes people… but you are quite correct. This is one of the reasons why I like to flip the chart upside down. It lets me visualize the opposite side of the trade better.

10

Or stand on your head, but whatever works for you. :stuck_out_tongue:

Long or short depends on what the charts/data you have are doing. It isn’t so much long is better than short or vice versa, but what decision you make. If you think the currency pair will go long, then go long. If you think it’ll go short, go short.

Mich hit it pretty good. Money management is my favorite out of those :smiley:

11

or I could just pack up and move to the Down Under…:smiley:

12

I like to go short most of the time, because you can trade pullback, you can see the support, resistant lines, so you know how far it will go down, if go long, like right now, nobody knows EUR/USD will up to 1.5300 or 1.6000, or it will turn back down, to south, if it turn to south, you can easy to find the stages…:slight_smile:

13

You can’t say one is better than the other. Whatever your indicators are telling you. If you short the USD/EUR then your getting the EUR/USD long.

14

Hi,

Since the only instrument traded is EUR/USD then you are either longing the instrument or shorting it.

Longing EUR/USD means you are buying EUR with borrowed USD
Shorting EUR/USD means you are buying USD with borrowed EUR

HTH,

Mich

15

Hi,

I hope that we should know slightly better than that. Attached is a daily chart of EUR/USD with today’s close prices. You will see that I have drawn 5 Elliot Waves on it with Wave 5 completing. After Wave 5, there will be a correction Wave A as projected. The lines are the Fibonacci retracement lines. In short I expect EUR to go down so if I was going to trade EUR/USD, I would be shorting it.

HTH,

Mich

EURUSD_daily_20091023.pdf (57.2 KB)

16

this question is the same as ask if is better go to the right or to the left when driving a car…

just go with the road my friend or you hit a tree:D

17

lol well said!

18

When starting out go the opposite to what you think you should do :wink: