Shorting stocks

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12th Jan '22 by Jackberai

11 comments 663 reads

Good afternoon, this is my first post (but I'm sure the 1st of many) so go easy please!

I understand the principal of this, however where do you find the shares that are/willing to be 'shorted'!

Thanks

Jon

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Jackberai

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11 comments

Gilgamesh_Investor

12th Jan '22

I’ve never officially shorted a share but I’d assume you have to contact your broker - you may have to show that you understand how to deal with advanced investment instruments. I think on one of my broker websites I had to answer questions. You will then have to put up a certain amount of capital as leverage and understand margin call price etc.

If you want to see short positions you can type in ‘short positions FCA’ into Google and it gives you the latest disclosed short positions - be very careful

Dragon

12th Jan '22

You could open a Spread betting account and they provide access to shortable shares or indexes. Try reading Robbie Burns The Naked Trader guide to spread betting. Remember there is no upside limit to a short even hedge funds get seriously burnt.

Snowbum

12th Jan '22

Learn to identify the 4 stages of the stock cycle and only short once a down trend has been established. Use short term ema’s to follow the trend and move your stop losses down accordingly. If you want to short successfully you must at the very least have basic skills in technical analysis.

Jackberai

14th Jan '22

Hi, can you share what brokersites these were? I using a trading platform and I pretty sure shorting shares is not a facility they offer.

Epsilon

14th Jan '22

Have a go at setting up a demo account at IG:

https://www.ig.com/uk/?CHID=1&...

IG offer a standard cash Shares Account with a trading commission of £3 / trade if you trade regularly.

Additionally you can set up a CFD &/or a Spreadbetting account in which you can be either long or short stocks, currencies, indices, commodities etc.

IG allow you to use the value of your Shares Account as collateral to offset against margin requirements in your CFD account which is very useful.

Jackberai

15th Jan '22

Hi, can you share what brokersites these were? I using a trading

platform and I pretty sure shorting shares is not a facility they offer.

Jackberai

15th Jan '22

Hi, yes funny enough I'd already set up an IG account :)

Mike888

15th Jan '22

Open a demo account with IG, you can short via CFD or spreadbet. You cannot short all stocks, but it is clear which you can. CFD's match the market accurately, SB's don't. SB's are tax free, CFD's aren't but losses are tax deductible.

My very strong advice is don't short a stock unless you know what you're doing, a demo account will demonstrate this. The logic is clear enough but the market behaves in a certain way and favours long positions, also unlike long positions, with a short you are in theory at least exposed to unlimited losses.

doctor dave

16th Jan '22

Don’t

doctor dave

16th Jan '22

Don’t!

JohnEustace

16th Jan '22

Shorting is difficult, much harder than normal investing. You need to have the right mentality for it. If you are asking this question you almost certainly should steer clear.

But everyone has to start somewhere and the Robbie Burns Spread Betting book that slopsjon mentions is a good primer.

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Jackberai

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