Sell action

alaane

Trader
May 8, 2013
1
0
12
Hi!
Been trading only for a few weeks, done a lot of reading and thus far it's going great. I am using eToro for trading. I have a question about SELL actions though.

tYdkPK.jpg

The BUY row seems logical to me. Trader bought AUD @ 1.2923, current price is lower, hence the -5 pips and loss in net profit and gain %. Stop loss and take profit here are pretty simple to understand.

However, when I look at the top SELL row, I'm totally lost. It shows -12 pips and negative profit even though current price is higher than the opening price. Not to mention stop loss is higher than take profit.

Can somebody please explain this to me?

:rolleyes:
 

hayseed

Master Trader
Jul 27, 2010
1,014
258
149
usa
sell

hey alaane.... they sold the nzdusd short at .8390 and now the current price is .8402.....

so the price has moved against them, up, 12 pips..... the stoploss for a short will be above the profit target.....

just look at it again or better still put it on a chart and things should clear up.....

glad to hear things are going great...... keep it up.......h
 

eToro Team

Trader
Aug 14, 2012
3
0
17
Hi alaane,

First of all, welcome to the eToro social investment community! I see that you're already CopyTrading, a great way for a beginner to learn from the top traders and start taking advantage of market opportunities while still learning.

As for your question: BUY and SELL positions work in opposite directions.

When you BUY a currency pair, for example the EUR/AUD you are buying Euros and selling Aussie dollars. You therefore want the price of the Euro to go up so you can then sell the Euros you bought for more Aussie dollars when you close the trade.

When you SELL NZD/USD, you are selling NZ dollars and buying US dollars. You therefore want the exchange rate to go down so you can sell the US dollars you bought for more NZ dollars.

You can learn more about financial trading through the Trading Academy section of our site. There you will find glossaries, guides, tutorial videos and many other helpful articles at your disposal.

Happy trading!
Abby, eToro Team
 

Rambo35

Confirmed PaxForex Representative
Apr 22, 2013
909
24
32
Canada
Hi!
Been trading only for a few weeks, done a lot of reading and thus far it's going great. I am using eToro for trading. I have a question about SELL actions though.

tYdkPK.jpg

The BUY row seems logical to me. Trader bought AUD @ 1.2923, current price is lower, hence the -5 pips and loss in net profit and gain %. Stop loss and take profit here are pretty simple to understand.

However, when I look at the top SELL row, I'm totally lost. It shows -12 pips and negative profit even though current price is higher than the opening price. Not to mention stop loss is higher than take profit.

Can somebody please explain this to me?

:rolleyes:

Don't forget about the spread. When you open a trade you start out with a loss even if the price has not moved yet.