Which do you prefer, long or short for intraday?

Trading
1

I have zero knowledge and zero experience with derivatives, I just did some occasional day trading in stocks. With my limited experience I think shorting is easy compared to going long.

I know that people even trade with 1 minute time frame, and each 1 minute could be different, so in 5 minutes, both long and short traders can be profitable. But is there a general feeling about which is more profitable?

What I think is, price cannot go up forever, even in a day, if one trades only in very liquid large cap stocks, there could be upward fatigue, optimism decreasing etc. On the other hand price can fall more than it can rise in percentage terms, because fear is more powerful than greed. Of course there will be support levels both fundamentally and technically but still, I think shorting is easy compared to going long.

I did not trade continuously for any period of time, so as to make any conclusive statement. I did not check the trades I took in the past, but as far as I can remember, I think I made profits shorting.

What do you experienced traders say?

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shorting is tougher in the sense that, gnrally 80% tyms mrkts go up. so, we hav to get the timing absolutely ryt n no matter wat, only if its a big bear mrkt, downside is always limited for shorts and is for short tym.

i burned my fingers a lot for sum years shorting mrkts. but it was gud experience.

whereas, one advantage for shorters is : majority are long only players so u can develepp edge if u can get the risk n tyming ryt

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3

Let’s say, I forgot how to go long.

4

on some other post I have mentioned I’ve made 50%(thats 75% to be exact) profit in a month from intraday trading when i started. That time i don’t know about charts, Technical analysis price action, stoploss or any sorts. All i did is shorting. one entire month i made profit. I monitored one particular stock for a week, then as market opens will wait for the price to rise and then will short… mostly before 10am.

The nxt month 1st day I did the same. price came up up and up, i kept averaging. by end of the day i booked 75% loss of what I have earned from the previous month. you know what happened next, the next 1 week my hands feared to place an order.

From that day I started to learn about charts and all other things, learning still continues.

I think I have answered your question with a real example.

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5

You go long with a narrative.
You go short with a narrative.

In fact, if you short blindly, you are as good as going long blindly.

There is nothing as, you tend to lose more when you go short.

You lose more when you don’t want to accept the loss and the reality of having a loss.

That’s why it makes total sense to keep a loss limit per day if you day trade.

So, which works best, long or short in day trading?

That’s depends on your narrative right. If i say shorts, but we don’t live together. So, you don’t get my narrative.

Either works. Just have a loss limit as per your capital.

Uncertainty basics.

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6

Personally I am more comfy going long.

7

market goes down faster…so good move can be captured within less time

8

I am perpetually Long with Fut so on bull days nothing to do. only position sizing varies.
All short trades are long exits and tgt lower entries. ( SL in effect is higher rate entry )
If tgt is met intraday, then its intra trade else continues as swing.

Apart from that I write CE / PE and long PE for short trades or for hedge which can be around 10% of profit cost.

2 Likes
9

take today’s example itself

10

Long is definitely safer in general. Short is good under certain circumstances. All my strategies outperform majorly when long (compared to short)

11

Is it intraday in particular or positional ?

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My systematic directional option trades usually last anywhere between 2 hours and 2 days.

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13

I have to do some trades on the days when the market falls to see if my past experience gets repeated.

14

If you wait to apply shorts only when the market falls, then it would be hard.

It ld be hard to know before hand if markets will fall or if it is really falling or just a slight drop to get a bounce.

Talking through intraday perspective, you can get shorts every now and then.

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I am talking about going short only for that day, only on the days when market falls. I know that after I have entered market may reverse, go up, and my trade will go into loss, but I remember making profit going short on falling days, than going long on rising days.

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16

FOr trader Going short and Long is both impt to make money.
As legendary traders have said Trend is your best friend in market for trading
So both is impt for traders

17

Yes.

But my question is which has best strike rate, if we can say that, going long when market is up, or going short when market is down.

18

All depends on Our emotions,entry exit,timing in market,risk manegement and SL
Some likes only Long in bullish markef,some likes only short,some likes both Long and short in sideways market
All depends on individual trading style
Find your Niche
Thats more impt
Your trading style wont suit me and Myn wont suit you

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19

Yes, I think shorting suits me, but I wanted to know if long works better, so that I can check it and see if I can get better results than shorting.

20

Well, you misinterpreted me completed.

What i mean is I go short everyday regardless of the market direction. I don’t want to complicated what is already complex.

Looking and waiting for market to fall is being complicated imo.

You can find shorts even in a uptrend or sideways. I play with what to so many will be a shorter timeframe.

Sideways, rangebound or whatever people name it, should matter less for intraday traders. Unless, you belong to those category, who play bigger timeframes and wait till eod to take whatever the market shits out.

Nothing is wrong if you make money. I just don’t believe in exposing trades for whole day. Better be a swing.

You have doubts, that’s why you are asking around.

I feel that you are seeing something. Maybe onto something. That’s how we all began.

And bits and tits of other’s experiences helps a lot. I have even pick up nuggets from a beginner trader. Just be open to learn.

This is a very lonely game. Not that you ll not have friends or family. But again, this ll be a very lonely game.

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