What is an open position?
An open position is a type of trade that has the potential to make money or lose money. All gains and losses are realized when a position is closed, and the transaction is no longer open for business. You can profit from falling and rising markets by having open positions that are either long or short.
An illustration of an open position
Let’s say you decide to make a CFD trade because you want to buy more shares of business X. You would enter the market after choosing the specifics of your trade and performing the necessary technical and fundamental investigation. Your position would be regarded as “open” at this time.
You would often need to reverse the deal you made to open an open position to close one (selling any assets that have been bought, or vice versa). In some circumstances, if an open position approached its expiration date, it would be closed automatically. For instance, a futures contract would result in this.
If a stop or limit was applied to an open position and it was later filled, the position would likewise be automatically closed.
Reducing Risk
Investors are advised to keep open holdings to 2% or less of the value of their entire portfolio to reduce risk. Investors might lower risk by spreading their open holdings across several market sectors and asset types.
To balance the risk, investors can alter the allocation per sector following the market state while maintaining positions of up to 2% of each stock.
Benefits and Drawbacks of an Open Position
Benefits
Traders can make money when they have an open position. However, traders would only have exposure to the market if they had open positions; thus, they couldn’t hope to make any money.
A trader can use leverage to get total market exposure for a little initial commitment, which can be a terrific method to maximize profit on open positions. Leveraged trading can boost profits, but it can also magnify losses.
Drawbacks
Financial vulnerability is a potential loss of capital. A trader must therefore develop a risk management strategy. Two examples are learning about the dangers of trading with leverage or how to hedge an open position.
FINAL INSIGHT
An open position represents market exposure for the investor. Up until the position is closed, there is a risk. Depending on the approach and goals of the investor or trader, open positions can be held for a short period or for years.
Naturally, portfolios contain a large number of open positions. Depending on the size of the position, the account size, and the holding term, there is a certain amount of risk associated with an open position. Long holding periods are, generally speaking, riskier because there is more exposure to unforeseen market shocks.
Closing out the open positions is the only method to stop exposure. Notably, selling the long position is necessary to close a long position, while purchasing back the shares is necessary to complete a short position.
