Short selling is a technique used by investors to profit from a decline in the price of stocks.
In short selling, an investor borrows stock from his or her brokerage firm and sells it on the open market. The trader then waits for the stock price to drop before buying back shares at a lower price and returning them to their broker. If the price does fall as hoped, the investor keeps the difference as profit — minus any transaction fees and interest charges on the borrowed shares.
If an investor borrows 100 shares of KYZ at $100 per share and sells them for $100 each on the open market, then at expiration (or settlement) the seller has to buy back those 100 shares for the current price and give them back to the lender. If KYZ share price falls to $80 at expiration, then the investor has to buy back those 100 shares at $80 each and return them to the broker/lender, who gives the investor a $20 per share profit, minus any transaction fees such as commissions, etc. However, if the price of ABC shares increases to $110, the investor will make a loss of $10.
When there’s volatility in the market as a whole or within specific sectors, for example, oil and gas companies, it can create opportunities for investors who want to take advantage of these ups and downs in share value.Â
Day traders also use this strategy with volatile penny stocks that can rise and drop in price within hours.
If you own stocks or other securities that have an inverse relationship with another security, you may want to protect your portfolio by shorting them so that if one asset goes up, the other goes down by an equal amount. This hedges against risk if one asset rises too much compared with others in your portfolio.
An investor may speculate that a certain stock will drop in price, due to different factors such as; financial analysis, news, products sold by the company, public image, future plans and a company’s track record.
Tesla, the famous electric Automaker didn’t always have the fanfare and trust among investors. There were a lot of investors who decided to short-sell Tesla’s stock. Unfortunately for them, Tesla stock skyrocketed. According to Business Insider, Tesla short-sellers lost $38 billion throughout 2020. Â
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Yes, Questrade allows short selling. However, it won’t work with TFSA or RRSP accounts. You need to have a margin account.
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To learn more about the basics of trading stocks, click this link.
Kenyon Ndezi is a recent graduate, writer, creator of vividbay.com, and the owner of Neonbuild.com, which is a company focused on building apps for small businesses and individuals. Follow along and get inspired!
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1 comment
Well explained! U mentioned that if i wanted to short sell I’d need a margin account. Will a normal cash account work?