Who this is for — First entry in the concepts path: what happens when you press buy or sell, regardless of strategy.
In trading, buy and sell are the two elementary directions for interacting with the market via an order.
| Term | Operational meaning |
|---|---|
| Buy | Purchase the issue or contract — usually to open a long or close a short |
| Sell | Sell — to open a short or close a long |
On most platforms, Buy and Sell buttons send orders to the matching-engine or market-maker. Exact meaning depends on context: spot-market, futures, cfd.
Buy and sell are not yet a strategy
Executing a buy does not mean «the market will rise». It only means taking bullish exposure (or reducing bearish exposure). When to buy or sell is covered by different methodologies — discipline-cyclic-analysis, volumetric-analysis, quantitative-trading, price action, etc.