Index Long and Short and Charts

In stock indices trading, there are 2 types of trades, these are:

Long (buy) - long is if the trend is buy/bullish.
Short (sell) - short is if the price trend is sell/bearish.

Buying/Long and Selling/short in Stock Index Trading

In Index Trading, Both Actions Happen During Trade Execution

Buying Long -indices trading term to use when buying and when opening a trade.

Short Selling: Term for Opening Sell Trades on Indices.

"Long" is an alternative designation for initiating a purchase within index trading. If a trader goes long, it signifies they have bought the asset with the expectation of upward price movement. When the market price action advances along an upward trajectory in indices, this directional bias is customarily labeled as a bullish stock trend.

Short - This term designates the act of selling a trading asset that is currently moving in a downward trajectory. A market experiencing price decline is commonly referred to as having a bearish stock trend.

The term "selling short" generally means selling in the trading markets. Short selling means trading something with the expectation that it will lose value compared to something else. Selling such an index means taking a position where value moves away from that specific item and is kept in something else, often U.S. dollars, which is used to measure that item.

Buy/Long

If the trading price is heading up we buy, this is known & referred to as going long - Hence long is just another name for buy. When the trend is moving up it is known as bullish, this is when a buy trade is placed. A bullish indices trend is identified by drawing an upward indices trendline on a chart. The example illustration explained & shown below shows a long/buy signal.

Buy/Long bullish Trend - How to Buy a instrument

Buy/Long

Sell/Short

We sell if the price is falling, which is called going short. A bearish market is when the price trend is moving downwards. The example below shows a downward trend, which is when a short sell happens. You can spot a short/sell by drawing a downwards trendline on a chart. The illustration below provides an example of a short/sell signal.

Sell/Short Bearish Trend - How to Sell a Instrument

Sell/Short - Indices Buy Trade & Stock Index Sell Trade

Charts

A stock chart is a picture that shows how trading prices (on the side going up and down) change over time (on the side going left to right) for indices. The way market prices move is marked and drawn on these charts. The chart can be drawn as candle charts like the one below, or as line charts or bar charts.

Chart Candlestick Charts - Chart - Draw Candles Charts on Trading Platform

Chart - Candles Charts

The three common types of charts used in indices are:

Candlesticks Charts
Line Charts
Bar Charts

These three chart types are covered in the chart types section.

Trading Software

This is the software a broker provides to help stock traders make their trades easily. After you, as a trader, download and set up this software on your desktop computer, you can begin trading in the stock market. All stock trades happen through this software. If you, as a trader, want to learn a trading platform, MetaTrader 4 Software is a great stock software to begin with.

To set these orders, open MetaTrader 4 Software, open a "chart", right click in "chart", select and choose 'New Order", then select the trade order either buy or sell as pictured below. (Short-Cut key board Keys - Press "F9")

Setting Buy Long and Sell Short Trades on MT4

Placing Buy Long Order and Sell Short Order on the MT4 Platform

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