When you hear people talk about long or short trades, they’re describing whether you’re betting a price will go up or down. If you go long, you’re buying an asset (like a stock or crypto) because you believe its price will rise — for example, you buy Bitcoin at $30,000 hoping to sell later at $35,000 and pocket the difference. If you go short, you’re essentially borrowing the asset and selling it immediately at today’s price because you think it will fall — later, you buy it back cheaper and return it, keeping the profit. For example, you short Ethereum at $2,000, then buy it back at $1,700, so you gain $300 per unit.

Long trades are generally simpler and lower risk for beginners, since you can only lose what you invest, while shorts can be riskier because if the price keeps going up instead of down, your potential losses are unlimited. That’s why many traders start with long positions until they get comfortable with how markets move.