( 1 ) Not all U.S. stocks can be sold short
Not all US stocks can be shorted, and not all US stocks can be shorted every moment. Some stocks with very low prices or very poor liquidity are not allowed to go short. As for those stocks with poor liquidity, there may be situations in which bonds cannot be borrowed, and such stock shorting functions are intermittent.
( 2 ) The same stock cannot be long and short at the same time
It should be noted that the same securities account cannot be long and short the same stock at the same time. When you hold a stock and sell a short position at the same time, the stocks you hold will be sold first; if the sold quantity exceeds the quantity held, the excess will trigger a short operation.
( 3 ) Pay close attention to account balance and risk control value
Short trading is margin trading. When conducting margin trading, the brokerage firm will calculate the risk control value of the account in a certain way. When the overall risk control value of the account is lower than 0 , some or all of your positions may be liquidated.
( 4 ) Stock dividends need to be paid
Although short sellers sell stocks in the market, the owner of the stock still belongs to the lender, and the corresponding dividends belong to the lender. Due to stock lending, the lender cannot enjoy the dividends of the part of the loaned stock, so the short seller should pay the dividend for this part of the stock (the actual equity of the short seller has not changed, because the stock price drops after the ex-dividend Floating). If short sellers do not want to pay dividends, they can choose to close their positions before the ex-right and ex-dividend date.
( 5 ) The minimum number of short trades
There may be a minimum transaction quantity requirement when shorting some stocks, such as 100 shares.