One of the biggest differences between the spot market and futures is this:
👉 In futures, you do not depend on the price going up to profit.
Here appear two key concepts that every trader must master from the beginning: Long and Short.
Opening a Long position means you are betting that the price will go up. You buy at a lower price with the intention of selling at a higher price. It is the traditional logic of the market and the most intuitive for most.
Opening a Short position, on the other hand, means you are betting that the price will go down. You sell first and then buy back at a lower price. It may seem strange at first, but it is an essential tool in volatile markets like crypto.
Why is this so important?
Because the market doesn't go up all the time. There are impulses, corrections, ranges, and sharp declines. In futures, each of those movements can become an opportunity if you know how to read the context.
A common mistake is to think that shorting is 'going against the market'. It is not. Shorting is simply trading a bearish phase, just as you long in a bullish phase.
The most consistent traders do not marry a direction. They are not 'bullish' or 'bearish'. They are reactive:
If the price shows strength, they look for longs
If the price loses structure, they look for shorts
And here comes a key warning:
👉 Long and short are not emotional decisions; they are technical decisions.
Entering long just because 'it has fallen a lot' or short because 'it has risen too much' usually ends badly.
In Binance, opening a long or a short is just a button.
The difference between winning and losing lies in why you press it.
If you understand the context, support, resistance, and price flow, long and short stop being bets and become precision tools.