Long and short, and why Caliente is long only
Caliente Signals · Updated
Going long means you are positioned for the price to rise. You buy, you hold, and you close the position by selling later. It is what most people mean when they say they bought something.
Going short is the other direction: you are positioned for the price to fall. The order is reversed, so you sell first and buy back afterwards, and since you are selling something you do not yet own, somebody has to lend it to you or sell you a contract that stands in for it.
That borrowing is the part worth knowing about. Holding a short costs money for as long as it stays open, charged as borrow interest on margin or as a funding rate on perpetuals. A long position on an unleveraged spot buy has no equivalent running cost, and the most it can lose is what you put in. A short has neither of those properties.
Caliente is long only, for now
Every strategy you can build here is a long one: an entry rule that says when you would buy, an exit rule that says when you would sell. Short strategies are not live.
Whether they arrive is a question of how many people want them. The builder has a Long / Short toggle, and choosing Short records that you asked. You can also just tell us directly.
If shorts do ship, they ship with the borrowing costs modelled. A backtest that leaves out a cost which accrues by the hour is not a backtest, and we have said elsewhere what we think of flattering numbers.
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Write the rule. We'll watch for it.
Unlimited backtests on the free plan, and no card to start.
Caliente Signals is an alert tool, not an investment advisor. Nothing on this page is financial advice, and past performance is not indicative of future results.