- Direction (long or short) controls how the whole trade's P&L is calculated.
- Long: buys are entries, sells are exits - profit when price rises.
- Short: sells open the position, buys cover it - profit when price falls.
- Multi-leg strategies (option spreads, futures rolls) should be logged as separate trades grouped by a shared Flag.
- Pick direction at creation; flipping it later recomputes P&L and confuses historical reports.
Direction controls how P&L is calculated for the trade as a whole.
- Long - buys are entries, sells are exits. Profit when price rises.
- Short - sells are entries (opening the short), buys are exits (covering). Profit when price falls.
For multi-leg or complex strategies (option spreads, futures rolls), record each leg as its own trade and use Flags to group them - e.g. tag both legs of a calendar spread with #calendar-2024-09 and the per-flag report shows the combined picture.
Choose the right direction at creation; flipping it later recomputes P&L and can confuse historical reports.
Was this helpful?