Trading Commodities and Financial Futures: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Markets, Third Edition

It is as easy to sell short as to buy long

If you're an experienced trader, feel free to skip this section. For the rest of you, the concept of selling short is an important one. After you begin to trade, selling short will become second nature, but experience has shown that many novices initially have trouble with the concept.

Everyone knows that if you buy something at one price and sell it for a higher price, you make money. If you sell it at a lower price than what you paid for it, you lose money. When you trade futures, you can buy or sell in whatever order you like. You can buy and then sell, or sell and then buy. Whichever you choose, the idea is that the selling price should be higher than the buying price. One question I've often heard ...