Recently, some friends asked me what exactly is going long and going short. It seems that many people still have some confusion about these basic concepts. So I’ll organize my understanding here, hoping to help everyone clarify their thinking.

Let’s start with going short. Being bearish is easy to understand—it's when you think a certain coin’s price will fall. But just being bearish isn’t enough; actual shorting requires action, which means selling. In the spot market, you can’t directly short unless you use futures or leveraged contracts.

The logic of a short position is like this: you believe the coin’s current price is high, but it will drop in the future. So you first sell the coins you hold, and when the price really falls, you buy them back. The difference between the selling and buying prices is your profit. That’s the core of shorting—sell first, buy later.

For example, suppose a coin is now worth ten dollars each, and you expect it will fall. But you only have two dollars, not enough to buy a coin. At this point, you can use the two dollars as margin to borrow one coin from the exchange. After borrowing, you sell the coin immediately, so you now have ten dollars in cash. When the price drops to five dollars, you use five dollars to buy back the coin and return it to the exchange. The remaining five dollars is your profit. That’s how shorting profits work.

But the risk is also clear. If the price doesn’t fall but instead rises, your margin will suffer losses. Once the loss exceeds what your margin can cover, you’ll get liquidated, and your principal might be lost entirely. So shorting definitely requires a clear market judgment.

On the other hand, going long is much more straightforward. Going long means you think the price will rise. In the spot market, just buying is going long. Buy low, sell high later, and profit from the difference—that’s going long.

The idea of going long is simple: I believe in this coin’s prospects, so I buy a certain amount at the current price. When the price goes up, I sell to make a profit. Buy first, sell later—that’s going long.

For example, ETH. Suppose you buy one ETH at $1,480 because you’re very optimistic about it. Later, the price rises to $1,620. You choose to sell and earn $140. This process is called going long. If you used leverage, your profit could be multiplied.

Interestingly, “long” and “short” don’t refer to specific individuals or institutions, but rather to a group of people with similar ideas and market expectations. The market is constantly a battle between those who are bullish and those who are bearish.

In essence, going long and going short are two opposite expectations about the market direction. Going long bets on the rise; going short bets on the fall. Whichever you choose, the key is to have an accurate judgment of the market; otherwise, losses can come quickly. That’s why trading seems simple in theory, but in practice, it requires continuous learning and practice.