This introduction to short story shorting stocks course, explains shorts borrow stock to sell at higher prices and later buyback to repay the loan and profit from low or falling prices. The lessons of this course cover the short selling process details and how it works for investors, companies and in stock markets.
What you learn
Besides defining short selling, the introduction to short story shorting stocks lesson links to overviews of all other lessons in the course gives some details on the material which is presented in each lesson. That gives you a good idea of the subject matter covered in each lesson and the course.
Frequently Asked Questions about Introduction to short story shorting stocks
What is short selling?
Short sellers seek to profit when they find a stock they believe trades at prices well above its actual value.
When they think the price will fall, they borrow stock to sell at high prices. Wait for the price to drop to buy back at the lower prices and return the borrowed stock. After they cover any costs, the difference is their profit.
Short selling is the opposite of buying long and expecting prices to rise further to profit.
While simple in concept, short selling is a challenging, sophisticated, and complex advanced strategy for knowledgeable, experienced traders. New investors can better understand markets and investing by being aware of and understanding the idea of short selling. But new investors should only consider this advanced strategy after establishing a record of successful trading.
How do I bet against a stock?
Short-selling investors profit by betting on a stock's price decline. They must identify an overvalued stock, but the most profitable short targets also involve fraud, multiple operating issues, or financial problems.
Investors borrow shares from a stockbroker willing to lend on margin to sell short. They cover the risk by requiring the investor to hold cash, pay fees, bear the ongoing interest cost, and credit the sale proceeds to the broker's account.
Then, once the stock price falls, the borrowed shares are repurchased and returned, so after paying fees and costs, the remains are profit.
While short-selling is simple, successful execution requires excellent timing and sharp management of risks and running costs.
How do I bet against the market?
There are three strategies that can be very profitable trades that bet against a market or stock, short selling, options, and inverse exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Before the market falls you can,
1. Short sell a stock or selection of stocks.
2. Sell Put options, which are rights to sell at a certain price for a certain time.
3. Trade inverse ETFs which move in the opposite direction to the market.
All those trades increase in value as the market falls. To use them well takes some advanced understanding. That means this is no place for a beginner to dabble. Shorting markets or stocks, and trading options or ETFs are simple ideas, but making the most money means getting the timing and execution right. That takes knowledge and experience.
How does short selling a stock work?
Traders with research, timing and execution skills can make monumental returns by short selling.
They research to find overpriced stocks of a vulnerable, financially weak, or poorly run business for a target! They then borrow the stock from a willing stockbroker to sell while prices remain high.
They hope to convince others to sell and drive the stock price down by promoting and sharing their research. Once the price falls, they buy back, repay the stock loan, and cover costs, taking the remains as profit.
This simple idea is a challenging, sophisticated, and complex strategy to play consistently. New investors should only consider this strategy after they have a well-established profitable trading record.
What is naked short selling?
Naked short sellers sell shares they don't own or have not borrowed. Greed to profit without cost drives this illegal practice. It happens because outdated stock market processes allow naked shorting.
This deceit can harm shareholders by unfairly driving down a stock price.
But there are legitimate alternatives. For stocks they think are overvalued, investors can use options to bet the stock price will fall instead of borrowing stock to sell in a legal short sale. Without borrowing stock, sell a call or buy a put as a fair bet against an overvalued stock.
Short story shorting stocks caution: know but don't do
Investors that have got it wrong have lost houses or gone bankrupt shorting stock. Investors should know about short selling but few should do it. Knowing about selling short will make you a better investor.
However, shorting stock profitably and consistently demands a combination of knowledge and rare skills. That does not mean shorting is bad. It is not. In fact, shorting improves markets and companies.
The caution remains, shorting is not for beginners as this difficult and demanding strategy requires much knowledge and skill. This course introduces and provides a good overview of shorting. That will help make you a better investor by adding to your understanding of stock markets and investing.
Short trades profit when stock prices fall
Most times, most investors go long by buying stock expecting prices to increase in the future. Going short is the opposite. The short seller sells the stock they borrow but do not own when they expect to buy it back at future lower prices. That can confuse someone hearing it for the first time. So a little sugar can help our understanding of short selling.
Sugar can help the short sale go down
Rather than borrowing stock, we borrow a cup of sugar. We borrow the sugar and sell it at a high price when we expect the price of sugar to have a big decline. To return the cup of borrowed sugar, we wait for the price to fall, then buy back at lower prices, return the cup of sugar, and pocket the difference as our sweet profit!
Short sellers need a willing broker
Rather than borrowing sugar, short sellers need a broker willing to loan stock. To profit from a falling stock price, the short seller must first be able to sell borrowed stock at higher prices. To do that, they need to find stock to borrow.
When they do and after buying it back to return the borrowed stock, paying the costs, and profiting from the difference between the selling and buying price. The multiple aspects and complications of the short selling process are covered by the lessons in this course.
Markets go up and down
We know stock markets can trend up, sideways or down. By short selling or shorting, investors and traders can make a profit when markets or a stock turns down. Short selling can profit from down trending markets or the falling price of a stock. Short sellers bet against a market or stock to profit from those falling prices.
Most of the time, the market rises which means between 60% to 80% of the time. Typical uptrends occur almost 70% of the time. In typical up-trending markets, investors buy or go long to profit from rising prices. Going long means buying and holding stocks. Long investors expect to collect any dividends as well as profit from the rising value of the stock they own.
Borrowing stock to seek profit
Novice investors can readily understand the idea of borrowing money to buy stock. Borrowing funds from their stockbroker is buying stock on margin. Rather than borrowing cash, short sellers borrow stock from their broker. They have to have a cash reserve and other investments on hand that the broker uses to secure the loan of stock.
To profit, the short seller needs the price of the stock to fall so they can buy it back at a lower price. They return the shares borrowed from their broker to cover their short. There are fees, but net of expenses, short sellers keep the balance as profit.
Short Sale Example: 100 shares of a $50 stock falls to $20 in 3 months:
- -$5000 - borrow a $50 stock from your broker
- +$5000 - immediately sell the stock for $50
- the stock price falls to $20 over 3 months
- +$2000 - buy the stock back at $20
- -$2000 - return the shares to your broker
- -$ 125 - pay fees on $5000 (say 10% for 3 months)*
- -$10 in + $10 out - pay transaction costs*
- +$2855 - net profit
*Costs of fees and commissions vary widely.
Short selling and evil capitalism
Short sellers can get painted as the bad guys of capitalism. They can spoil the party for the company and management being attacked. While shorts can be wrong, they are often right when pointing out weaknesses in company operations. Shorts do expose lies, cheating, corruption, and management belligerence or abusive business practices.
Markets, companies, and economies are better when mismanagement or missed opportunity gets exposed. In that way, shorts do have an overall positive effect on markets. The how and why that can happen gets detailed in the lesson of the course.
Short Story Shorting Stocks course lessons:
The following lists each lesson in the Short story shorting stocks course by name and provides you with a link and an overview of the material covered in each of the lessons in this course.
Short selling improves markets
Lesson 2
Short selling improves stock markets with liquidity, price discovery, and activity that can also improve some shareholder values. Short seller pressure has made managements more accountable as well as sensitive to public, employee and shareholder issues. That pressure has made some managements more receptive to contrarian views or analytics.
Short selling improves companies
Lesson 3
Short selling improves companies by making management accountable and forcing checks on priorities, strategies and analysis to improve operations and increase shareholder value.
9 Short seller facts align
Lesson 4
9 Short seller facts align for experienced, knowledgeable short sellers to target a company. Stock market and company facts favoring shorts raise the odds of an attack.
Making money selling short
Lesson 5
Making money selling short needs the right timing, target, and technique built on exceptional research and analytics to develop trades that make money with consistency. Other investors can use the data, analytics, and research produced by short sellers to gain insight and market intelligence. That can help both long and short investors improve their stock market vision and understanding.
Shorting stocks has risks sellers must know, understand and manage. Knowing the process gives better stock market vision to investors aware of short selling risks, activity and options.
Shorting stocks has risks
Lesson 6
Shorting stocks has risks that must be known, understood, and managed including unique risks beyond those of a normal market that all investors know and deal with. Investors that know short sellers cope with those many risks, gain a deeper understanding of stock markets.
Who’s selling your stock?
Lesson 7
Who’s selling your stock is a lesson to make investors aware their broker may be loaning your stock to a short sellers borrowing from your broker. Shorts borrow the stock to sell before prices fall when they buy it back at lower prices to repay at a lower cost.
Short seller skill, sophistication, knowledge and experience supports investing and trading know-how beyond the ability of most investors. Experienced short sellers combine timing, judgment, and facts in an effective strategy that using their broad market vision and awareness to profitably short trade.
Short seller cost control
Lesson 9
The best short seller cost control comes from playing the right stock at the right time! Timing is the cost control secret of short sellers that keep costs of fees, commissions, other carrying charges, or dividend expenses as low as possible. Get that done and line up prices with volumes to produce a short selling profit.
Short selling has rules
Lesson 10
Short selling has rules that apply to all parts of this strategy. Rules on borrowing stock and selling restrictions put shorts in a high cost, high-risk play, ruled by brokers, exchanges, and regulators. Short sellers must know and understand all rules.
Investors ask about short selling
Investors ask about short selling in these FAQs from the short story shorting stocks on the impact short selling has on investors and markets. The Introduction to short story shorting stocks course explains the short sale process and how it impacts markets, investors, investing, and companies.
Questions Answered!
The lesson, Introduction to short story shorting stocks defines short selling to answer the question, what is short selling? Shorting is borrowing stock to sell at high prices for buyback later at lower prices. Then paying back the borrowed stock, paying the costs, and pocketing the price difference as profit.
Lesson takeaways, Introduction to short story shorting stocks
This introduction to short story shorting stocks course defines short selling as borrowing stock to sell at high prices for buyback later at lower prices. Then after paying back the borrowed stock and costs, the price difference get pocketed as profit. Course lessons cover the details of the short selling process and how it works in stock markets including the following:
- Corrections with 10% price drops happen regularly.
- Dips and corrections generate much meaningless market noise.
- Corrections are quick events of 2 to 14 weeks, about once a year.
- The cause, effect, and timing of corrections have not been discovered.
Other related lessons: Introduction to short story shorting stocks
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Short selling improves markets
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