Short selling is an investment strategy that involves betting on changes in commodity prices. Short selling refers to borrowing an asset and selling it, expecting the price to fall before buying it back and making a profit. Short buying is the opposite. You agree to buy first and then pay to take delivery of the goods after the price is expected to rise, thereby earning the price difference. The key to buying and selling short is to predict price movements, but it also involves borrowing and risk, and you may lose money if the price moves in the opposite direction to your prediction.
What does short selling mean? A popular explanation of what short buying and selling is
Buying and selling short seems complicated, but in fact the principle is very simple. It is essentially a bet that the price of a certain commodity (such as stocks, houses, commodities, etc.) will fall in the future. In order to facilitate understanding, we use a simple example to illustrate:
Scenario 1: Make money by borrowing a game console
Suppose Xiao Ming is very optimistic about a new game console and thinks It will definitely increase in price. But Xiaohong believes that this game console will soon become obsolete and the price will drop.
At this time, Xiaohong can borrow the game console from Xiaogang (who owns the game console) and agree to return it in a few days. Xiaohong immediately sold the borrowed game console at the current market price of 1,000 yuan. A few days later, if the price of the game console drops to 800 yuan as Xiaohong expected, she can buy another same game console for 800 yuan and return it to Xiaogang. In this way, Xiaohong earned 200 yuan (1000 - 800 = 200).
This is the simple logic of "short selling": borrow something and sell it first, then buy it back when the price drops and earn the difference.
Scenario 2: You can also make money by buying up
On the other hand, if Xiao Ming feels that the price of the game will increase, he can use the "short buying" method.
Assume that the current price of the game console is 1,000 yuan, and Xiao Ming predicts that it will rise to 1,200 yuan. He can first make an agreement with Xiaogang to buy a game console for 1,000 yuan, but he will pay for it after a few days. If the price of the game console really rises to 1,200 yuan, Xiao Ming still only needs to pay 1,000 yuan to get the game console, and then immediately sell it for 1,200 yuan, making a net profit of 200 yuan.
This is "short buying": agree to buy first, then pay to take delivery when the price rises, and earn the price difference.
Key points for short selling:
Predicting price trends: Short buying is a bet that prices will rise, and short selling is a bet that prices will fall.
Involves borrowing: Short selling requires borrowing assets, while short buying is similar to buying on credit.
There is risk: If the price trend is opposite to the prediction, you will lose money. For example, the price of the game console has risen after Xiaohong sold it short. She will have to pay a higher price to buy it back, which will result in a loss.
Summary:
Short selling is an investment strategy that takes advantage of price fluctuations to profit. While there are opportunities for high returns, they also come with high risks. In actual operation, short buying and selling is much more complicated than the above example, involving many factors such as margin and trading rules. Understanding its fundamentals is critical to understanding how financial markets work.
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