Buy or sell? Long and short in plain terms
Key takeaways
- LONG = a buy, SHORT = a sell
- Futures: you can follow both sides
- Spot: use the SELL signal as your exit
One signal, two sets of words
Every signal has a direction. In futures we call it LONG or SHORT. In everyday trading language it is simply a BUY or a SELL. They describe the same thing — it is the market you trade in that decides what you actually do.
The mapping
- EMF / LONG = BUY. On futures: open a long (or close a short). On spot: buy BTC.
- EMP / SHORT = SELL. On futures: open a short (or close a long). On spot: sell, or stay out of the market.
If you trade futures
You can follow the signal in both directions. A LONG opens a long position. A SHORT opens a short position. And because a new signal always closes the previous one, the SHORT is also the exit for your LONG.
If you trade spot
Spot has one side only: you buy, and you sell. There is no short.
So a SHORT signal is not a short trade for you — it is your exit. You sell what you hold and wait for the next LONG signal. Many spot traders simply sit outside the market on an EMP and take the next EMF.
Does auto-trade work on spot?
No. Auto-trade is available for futures only — the engine trades perpetual contracts with isolated margin on Bybit and OKX. Spot traders follow the signals manually: buy on EMF, sell on EMP.
Everything else works the same: the Terminal, Terminal Log, the notifications and the Academy.