Glossary
Short position
Going short means selling an instrument you expect to fall, aiming to buy it back lower — so you profit if the price drops.
A short position (“going short”) is a sell: you open the trade expecting the price to fall, and you profit if it does, by effectively buying it back lower. In MT4 you go short by clicking Sell in the order window. You lose if the price rises instead.
Shorting lets you try to profit in falling markets — the mirror image of a long position. With CFDs you can go short without owning the underlying asset.
Short trades carry the same risks as long ones (and a rising market has no fixed ceiling), so always use a stop loss.
Related terms
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