When it comes to understanding the long and short of investing, most beginner investors must learn what seems like a new language. In fact, the phrase “the long and the short of it” originated in financial markets. In this article we discuss certain key terms that will help you better understand and communicate with other market participants. These terms are used in the equity, derivative, future, commodity and forex (or currency) markets. You will learn what buying, selling and shorting really mean to investors and how they can use certain terms interchangeably with more confusing words like bullish and bearish. To compound the issue, options traders add in a few other terms like writing a contract versus selling one. When you can communicate properly, you will be better informed and can make wise investment decisions.