
Buying and selling in trading explained When you place a trade, you are either ‘buying’ or ‘selling’ a financial instrument. There are buyers and sellers in every market. Here we discuss how their relationship works, and how it influences the markets. What do ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ mean in trading? When you open a ‘buy’ position, you are essentially buying an asset from the market. And when you close your position, you ‘sell’ it back to the market. Buyers – also known as bulls – believe an asset’s value is likely to rise. Sellers – or bears – generally think its value is set to fall. When you open a position with a broker or trading provider, you’ll be presented with two prices. If you want to trade at the buy price, which is slightly above the market price, you open a ‘long’ position. If you want to trade at the sell price – slightly below the market price – you open a ‘short’ position. The difference between the buy and sell price is known as the ‘spread’, which the provider takes to facil...