# How to know if an order is short or long?

**URL:** <https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/how-to-know-if-an-order-is-short-or-long/12868>\
**Category:** Alpaca Trading\
**Created:** [September 9, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/how-to-know-if-an-order-is-short-or-long/12868 "2023-09-09T18:16:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rudaAlpacaForum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@rudaAlpacaForum](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/rudaAlpacaForum)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/how-to-know-if-an-order-is-short-or-long/12868/1 "2023-09-09T18:16:07Z")

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By looking at the order ( [Orders - Documentation | Alpaca](https://alpaca.markets/deprecated/docs/api-documentation/api-v2/orders/#order-entity), is there a way to know if that order is a “Short” order or “Long” order?

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Whitnable\_Alpaca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/dan_whitnable_alpaca/32/1658_2.png) [@Dan\_Whitnable\_Alpaca](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Dan_Whitnable_Alpaca)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/how-to-know-if-an-order-is-short-or-long/12868/2 "2023-09-10T14:44:02Z")

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@rudaAlpacaForum Orders do not contain information on whether it was long or short. One would need to look at the `positions` to make some assumptions. If `positions.qty < 0` then the orders are ‘short’ otherwise the orders are long.