When you first enter the crypto world, the most headache-inducing thing is those professional terms. Opening a position, closing a position, and holding a position—many beginners probably find these concepts confusing, feeling like they've entered a different world. Actually, these are the most basic concepts in contract trading. Once you understand them, many of your operations in the crypto space will become much smoother.

Let's start with opening a position. Simply put, it means establishing a new trading position in the market. If you are bullish on a certain coin's upward trend, you buy in—that's called opening a long position; if you think it will decline, you choose to sell—that's opening a short position. In either case, you need to prepare some margin to support this operation, ensuring you can withstand potential losses.

Next is closing a position. This term sounds a bit complicated, but closing a position actually means closing the position you have already opened. When you think the market has reached your expected level, or you want to cut losses, you can choose to close the position. If you previously bought in a long position, closing means selling; if you sold in a short position, closing means buying back. The core purpose of closing a position is to lock in profits or reduce losses.

Holding a position refers to the trading position you currently hold. From the moment you buy or sell a coin, you enter a holding state. In this state, your profit or loss will fluctuate with the coin's price movements. Long positions are bullish, short positions are bearish.

As for calculations, it’s actually not complicated. The cost of opening a position is the price at which you buy or sell multiplied by the quantity. How to calculate profit and loss on a position? For longs, it’s (current price minus opening price) times the trading amount; for shorts, it’s (opening price minus current price) times the amount. The calculation method for closing profit and loss follows the same logic.

In actual operations, mastering the timing of opening and closing positions is essentially about managing risk and realizing profits. The key is to make decisions based on market conditions and your own risk tolerance, rather than blindly following the trend. Most importantly, learn to control risk—don't let a single loss knock you out. The recent trends of BTC and ETH are quite worth paying attention to; you can track them in real-time on Gate.