The Basics of Shorting Stock

Short selling can be lucrative, but it can take nerves of steel to weather the rise of the stock market. Given the risks, short sellers have to be unusually careful and well informed, lest they stumble into a stock that’s about to bound higher for years. So short selling is usually best left to sophisticated investors who have tons of research, deep pockets and a higher risk tolerance. On the other hand, some very public short sellers are happy to spread rumors or opinions that try to discredit profitable companies and scare the market into selling them.

You’ll have to come up with the $4,000, perhaps from a margin account, and you’re still on the hook for the cost of borrow and any dividends paid. Rather than buying a stock (called going “long”) and then selling later, going short reverses that order. A short seller borrows stock from a broker and sells that into the market. Later, they hope to buy back that stock at a cheaper price and return the borrowed stock in an effort to profit on the difference in prices. «Selling short against the box» consists of holding a long position on which the shares have already risen, whereupon one then enters a short sell order for an equal number of shares.

Disadvantages of short selling

You make money if the stock value goes down and you can buy back the number of shares you borrowed at a lower price than you sold them at. The primary risk of short selling is that your prediction could be wrong, and the stock price may increase instead. And the gamble of an incorrect guess is much higher with short selling than with traditional investing. But, you anticipate the stock’s price to fall and short 100 shares for a total sale price of $10,000. Usually, you would short the stock because you believe a stock’s price will fall.

For instance, a hedge fund manager might buy one stock while simultaneously shorting a similar stock so that if they have to sell the first stock at a loss, they’ll minimize losses by profiting off the short. There are a few reasons why investors might consider shorting or going short.

Costs and risks of short selling stocks

This means that shorting is betting against the overall direction of the market. Even though a company is overvalued, it could conceivably take a while for its stock price to decline. In the meantime, you are vulnerable to interest, margin calls, and being called away. If an investor’s account value falls below the maintenance margin, more funds are required, or the position might be sold by the broker. You generally short sell through a broker-dealer, or a company that trades securities for customers.

See our Pricing page for detailed pricing of all security types offered at Firstrade. If you short a stock at the market close the day before the ex-dividend date, you owe the dividend. This means it will be deducted from your trading account and paid to the person who actually owns the shares. If you’re into options trading, the process of short selling might sound a little bit like buying a put option. In fact, this type of trading inspired the movie “The Big Short.” Of course, that movie is a pretty extreme example. As a new trader, you won’t (and shouldn’t) be taking massive short positions. https://www.bigshotrading.info/ is only possible if a trader first borrows the shares on margin before they’re sold on the market.

Shorting a Stock Versus Buying a Put

Since there’s no limit to how high the stock price can rise, there’s also no limit to how much you can lose. The maximum profit you can Shorting a Stock make on a short position is the price you shorted the stock for. A final risk with short selling is what’s known as a short squeeze.

• The primary objective of hedging is protection, as opposed to the pure profit motivation of speculation.
• Similarly, financial securities that trade regularly, such as stocks, can become overvalued .
• When you’re shorting stock, you’re borrowing against the equity in your account.
• A short position can also be achieved through certain types of swap, such as contracts for differences.
• It’s easy to understand that you make money after buying a stock when the stock price increases.
• If the shares rally to $100 each, you’d have to buy them back for $1,000 for a loss of $900.
• Because you’re borrowing shares from a brokerage firm, you must first establish a margin account to hold eligible bonds, cash, mutual funds, and/or stocks as collateral.