What is being referred to as "short or long" in this sentence?

Question

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Whie hedge funds professionals like to highlight their flexibility to use derivatives, be *short or long* and use leverage, the skeptics believe that these characteristics can create price volatility by large inflow and outflow of funds to the targeted markets.

Answer 1

Grammatically, it's the professionals that are (actually that have the flexibility to be) short or long, just as it's the professionals that use derivatives and use leverage.

I think it would be more accurate to say the funds are short or long, but I could be wrong and grammatically that's not what the sentence says. Neither logically nor grammatically is it the flexibility that is short or long.

Answer 2

Whether they have a negative or a positive position in an asset. Being long means you hold an asset, so you make money if the price goes up, and you lose money if the price goes down. Being short means to sell an asset that you do not own. So if the price goes down you make money (as you can purchase the owed asset at a lower price) and if the price goes up you lose money (because it will cost you more than you got from selling it in the first place)

Answer 3

It refers to "flexibility."

Answer 4

hedge funds

Answer 5

agree "flexibility"