short selling restrictions

PDelux

does anyone know are the short selling restrictions still in place for some stocks? is the list of stocks available anywhere?

Tiesto

What brokers are you people using that allows ye to short?

PDelux

What brokers are you people using that allows ye to short?

I use interactive brokers and IG Index( which is a spread betting company).
Some brokers may have the option to short disabled for you so check with your broker if you need to enable it.

Tiesto

ok but shorting in spreadbetting isnt really shorting... Your not actually selling shs you dont hold

Thereason I ask is because i didnt think the average street broker out there allows you to short... I mean this would involve them having to borrow shs in order to satisfy your delivery. Of course you could naked short, but at some stage you will have to cover the short (the loan will either be recalled or in the case you didnt borrow to satisfy the delivery, you will have to buyback) and if the price goes in the wrong direction, you could lose a large amount of cash.

I always thought shorting is more prime brokerage business, for clients that have large funds deposited with the broker, to cover any exposure the broker holds while holding the short position...

PDelux

as far as i know though the spread betting companies also restricted the same stocks which the regulators restricted from shorting, hence my original question. So from my point of view of making money on the share price falling it doesnt really matter if i get the shares direct through IB or if I use the spread betters. Problem is in this specific case where i wanted to short an Italian bank, IB don't offer the option to short Italian stocks so i had to use IG. The message in IG was "not enough shares in the underlying market" but this could be because the stock is on the short ban list, i dont know.

luckystrike23

when shorting was disallowed on some financial stocks spread betting and CFD brokers stopped offering the markets full-stop. however the bans have now been lifted...

'The message in IG was "not enough shares in the underlying market" but this could be because the stock is on the short ban list, i dont know.'

to be able to short a stock there must be a party willing to lend it to you so that you can short it!! if a broken can't find sufficient stocks from institutions and big holders (usually) the stock won't be available for short selling even if its not banned.

patbrady877

as far as I know the only stock you cant short at the moment is the irish banks- US financials were restricted for a while but they have been lifted, however they have made them less attractive due to the spread (ie the buy and sell price), stock would need to drop by around 10% before you start to make money

Pal

Tiesto wrote: »

ok but shorting in spreadbetting isnt really shorting...

yes it is considered to be short selling
and if the stock is restricted, then
the spread bet company will not take the bet.