I'm Out

"I'm out" is trading-chatroom shorthand for announcing that a position has been closed. If a trader was long (owned shares hoping the price would rise) or short (had sold borrowed shares hoping the price would fall), saying "I'm out" means they've done the opposite transaction to flatten that position — sold what they owned, or bought back what they'd borrowed and sold.

The phrase is almost always paired with a price or a profit/loss figure, because the point of saying it isn't just that the trade ended, but how it ended. "I'm out $XYZ at +85 cents" tells listeners the trader exited with a gain of 85 cents per share, regardless of whether they started long or short. Without that context, "I'm out" alone just tells you the trader now has zero shares of that stock — it says nothing about whether they made or lost money.

The nuance that trips up beginners is that "I'm out" describes the closing side of a trade, not the opening side, and it says nothing about direction. Two traders can both say "I'm out" on the same stock at the same time — one because they sold a long position, the other because they covered a short — and both statements are correct even though they were betting opposite directions. You have to know (or ask) what the person's original position was to interpret the statement fully.

It's also purely informal language used in chatrooms, trading rooms, and casual conversation — it has no formal meaning on a broker's order ticket or trade confirmation. On paper, the actual event is just a sell order (if closing a long) or a buy-to-cover order (if closing a short).