When used in trading, long refers to a position that makes a profit if an asset’s market price increases.
Usually used in context as “going long” or “taking a long position“.
When you trade in the forex market, since you buy or sell in currency pairs, “going long” means that you are buying the base currency and selling the quote currency.
For example, if you go long EUR/USD, you are buying euros and selling U.S. dollars.
Going long is the opposite of going short or shorting, which means taking a position that makes a profit if an asset’s market price falls.
Taking a long position doesn’t necessarily mean buying an asset.
Derivatives allow traders to take a long position on a market without actually buying the underlying asset.