Sell

Hey, this is NorthRay.💪

Remember how I said I was going to open a trade on Apple?

Well… I tried. Honestly.

I spent the evening watching the AAPL chart, preparing, analyzing everything. But I decided to wait until morning so I’d be fresh.

I wake up at 8 AM Moscow time. Open the terminal. Click on Apple.

…Nothing.

The chart is frozen. The price isn’t moving. The Buy and Sell buttons are greyed out.

My first thought was: “That’s it. I got blocked. The broker is dead. The internet broke.”

And then it hit me.

The U.S. stock market was asleep.

At 8 AM Moscow time, it’s still the middle of the night on Wall Street. The exchange wouldn’t open for several more hours.

That’s how I learned markets operate on different schedules.🤐

I had to postpone Apple. But I couldn’t just sit there doing nothing.

So I checked which instruments were available at that moment. I saw SPX (the S&P 500 index — basically a basket of 500 major U.S. companies).

Unlike Apple, SPX is available for trading almost 24 hours a day with many brokers (through CFDs — contracts for difference). So I was able to open a trade in the morning.🤥

Instrument: SPX (S&P 500 Index)

Type: Sell

Volume: 0.10 lot

Stop-loss and take-profit: Set (of course)

Why Sell: The market looked overbought to me, and after yesterday’s rally I expected a pullback

The trade is still open. No result yet. We’ll see what happens.

I used to think trading was basically 24/7. Sit down whenever you want and trade.

Turns out… not exactly.🧐

The Forex market operates 24 hours a day,...

Hi, this is NorthRay.

Remember how in my first post I was afraid to press “New Order”?

I sat there staring at the terminal thinking:
“Should I buy or sell? What if I click the wrong thing? What if I choose incorrectly and get arrested?”

Spoiler: you won’t get arrested.

But back then, those two buttons — Buy and Sell — felt like magic to me. I didn’t understand what they did. I was just clicking randomly.

Then I figured it out.

And now I’ll explain it so simply that even my grandma would understand (she still doesn’t get why I stare at charts all day, but at least now she knows what the buttons mean).

Buy means buying. You’re betting that the price will go UP.

Simple example:

Imagine you’re at an apple market.

Today, an apple costs $1.

You think:
“Tomorrow apples will cost $2.”

So you buy an apple now for $1.

Tomorrow the price becomes $2.

You sell the apple. Your profit is $1.

That’s Buy.
You bought cheap and sold expensive.

Trading works the same way:

— You open a Buy trade.
— The price goes up.
— You close the trade and keep the difference.

When to press Buy:
When you think the price will rise.

Sell means selling. But not the usual kind. Here, you sell something you don’t actually own yet.

Sounds weird? Let me explain.

Simple example:

You’re at the same apple market.

Today, an apple costs $2.

You think:
“Tomorrow apples will drop to $1.”

You don’t have any apples. But the broker says:
“I’ll lend you an apple. Sell it now for $2. Tomorrow, buy a cheaper apple for $1 and return it to me.”

So you...