Concept
Long/short Account Ratio
Long/short Account Ratio is a Breadth, Sentiment & External Data concept. The Library holds 1 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Long/short Account Ratio indicators
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What is the Long/short Account Ratio?
The long/short account ratio is an exchange-published positioning metric: among accounts holding an open position in a given perpetual or futures contract, the number net long divided by the number net short. Some venues publish companion versions weighted by position size or restricted to their largest traders, and some margin venues publish outstanding long and short position totals that traders read the same way. Crucially, total long and short notional in a derivatives market always match one-to-one, so the ratio does not measure net market exposure; it measures how positioning is distributed across accounts, which makes it mostly a retail-crowding gauge.
The common reading is contrarian at extremes: a heavily long-skewed account base is fuel for long squeezes, and vice versa. Two caveats keep it honest. The baseline is usually long-skewed to begin with, so deviations from the metric's own typical range matter more than the raw number, and each exchange computes it differently, so cross-venue comparisons are unreliable.
How traders use it
- As a crowding flag: readings at the extreme of the metric's own history, especially when funding rate extremes agree, mark trades vulnerable to squeezes.
- As squeeze-setup confirmation: a heavily short-skewed ratio while price compresses above support suggests forced covering could power a breakout, with liquidation clusters showing where that fuel sits.
- As a divergence read against larger books: when small-account skew leans one way while top-trader position ratios and open interest build the other way, many traders side with the bigger positioning.
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Concept family
Breadth, Sentiment & External Data
63 concepts mapped · 61 in the Library
Long/short Account Ratio FAQ
Why doesn't a 2:1 long/short ratio mean twice as much money is long?
Account-based ratios count heads, not dollars. Every contract has exactly matched long and short notional, so if twice as many accounts are long, the average short account simply holds a larger position. That is why exchanges also publish size-weighted and top-trader variants, and why the account version is best read as a retail-positioning gauge.
Is a high long/short account ratio bullish or bearish?
Most practitioners read extremes contrarian: an unusually long-skewed crowd is vulnerable to a flush, an unusually short-skewed one to a squeeze. But the metric's baseline is typically long-biased, extremes can persist, and methodology differs by venue. Compare the reading to its own history and pair it with funding and open interest before drawing conclusions.
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