Going long is like a stock. Buy low and sell high before you get a profit.

Shorting is the opposite. Selling at a high level and buying back at a low level can make a profit.

Arbitrage is different from the above speculation. For example, if you think that the price of soybean meal may be stronger than that of soybean, you buy soybean meal contract and sell soybean contract. Or you think the price of sugar in recent months is stronger than that in the next few months. You can buy a contract for sugar in the near month and sell a contract for sugar in the far month.

The risk of arbitrage is smaller than that of one-way speculation, and the income is relatively small.