You can consider any direction as positive, and the opposite direction as negative. However, in this case it is customary to call a gain "positive", and a loss "negative".
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Business and finance: Examples are profit (positive) or loss(negative). Net Cash flow (amount of money coming in less amount going out) can be positive or negative. This is not the same as profit/loss. For example, you buy a piece of equipment for your business and finance it. Your payments on the loan affect cash flow, but the interest on the loan and the depreciation of the equipment affect profit/loss. In your personal finance, you can have a net negative cash flow. If you have some savings, and say one year you are laid off for a while and have to draw from savings. Or say you are saving up to buy a car. While you are saving, your net cash flow is positive, then when you buy the car, your cash flow could be negative, for that year. In investing, many investments (mutual funds in particular) will express a Rate of return as a percentage. This number could be either positive (the investment increased in value), or negative (the investment decreased in value).
Yes. In general, you can use positive versus negative numbers whenever you have two opposites. Other examples include having a net profit on a business transaction, versus having a net loss; or altitude above (or below) sea level,
Positive + Negative = Negative Negative + Negative = Positive Positive + Positive = Positive Negative + Positive = Negative
The rules for the sign (positive or negative) of the result of a multiplication is the same as division. For multiplication: Positive * Positive --> Positive Positive * Negative --> Negative Negative * Positive --> Negative Negative * Negative --> Positive For division: Positive / Positive --> Positive Positive / Negative --> Negative Negative / Positive --> Negative Negative / Negative --> Positive
a negative x a negative= a positive, a positive x a positive= a positive, a negative x a positive= a negative, and a positive x a negative= a negative. Same thing with division. a negative divided by a negative= a positive, a positive divided by a positive= a positive, a negative divided by a positive= a negative, and a positive divided by a negative is a negative. U see?