Mechanics
What is long vs short?
Long means you profit if price rises. Short means you profit if price falls.
Definition
Long means you profit if price rises. Short means you profit if price falls.
Long vs short, explained
Most traders start long-only — buying with the expectation of a price rise. Shorting (selling first, buying back lower) is a separate skill with different mechanics around borrowing and unlimited downside. Don’t mix them until you’ve mastered one.
Where long vs short shows up in a journal
A trading journal is where this stops being a definition and becomes your own number. sizeforzero computes it from the trades you import or log, alongside the rest of your analytics vocabulary, and every figure in the app carries an (i) that explains it in the same plain English you just read.