Why a long put shows as SHORT

What this does

You bought a put. Your broker shows a BUY. VEXA shows SHORT. Nothing is wrong, and this is worth two minutes because it comes up more than any other display question.

What the badge is actually saying

The LONG and SHORT badge answers which way you needed the underlying to go, not which button you pressed.

Buying a put is a bearish position. You make money if the stock falls. So VEXA labels it SHORT, because that is your exposure, and exposure is what matters when you are reading a list of trades looking for a pattern.

The same logic runs through the other option legs. The question the badge answers is always “did this position want the underlying up or down”, never “was the opening order a buy or a sell”.

Steps

Check it for yourself on any device.

Where you still see BUY and SELL

The order side has not been lost or overwritten. Each fill in the execution list still reads BUY or SELL exactly as your broker reported it.

So a long put reads like this:

Both are true statements about the same trade. One describes the position, one describes the order.

Why VEXA does it this way

A journal exists so you can see your own patterns. If puts were filed as LONG, then every list, every filter and every chart that groups by direction would mix bullish and bearish positions together, and “my shorts are losing money” would become a question you could not answer.

Grouping by exposure makes the direction column mean something. That is worth one moment of surprise the first time you see a put labelled SHORT.

Where the badge appears

Everywhere direction is shown: the trades table on web, iPad and Android tablet, the trade title on every device, the direction filter, and the LONG or SHORT pill in Trade Replay.

It is the same rule on all five surfaces. There is no device where a long put reads LONG.

What you should see

A put you bought shows a red or bearish SHORT badge in the direction column, and BUY on its opening fill in the execution list.

If it doesn’t work

A stock trade you sold short shows LONG. That would be a genuine error rather than this convention. Check the executions: if the opening fill quantity has the wrong sign, the import read the file wrong. Contact support with the trade and the file you imported.

Your P&L is the wrong sign. The badge does not affect P&L. P&L comes from the fills. If a short that made money shows a loss, the trade’s fills have the wrong sides.

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