Logistics of Shorting

[FarmerGeorge]

Aside from CFD's has anyone on the forum had some experience selling stocks short and could maybe talk about the practicalities of executing?

[Steve]

Try doing a search. This topic gets re-hashed every so often.

[FarmerGeorge]

Thanks Steve, I figured that might be the case but I didn't have any luck, potentially point me in the right direction?

[Steve]

Here a couple of threads, but not really that useful...

ONE

or

TWO

or

THREE

[FarmerGeorge]

Appreciate the links Steve, unfortunately the answers seem to be the same as my own investigations found. I'm looking at some relative value arbitrage opportunities but the only way to put them together is if there is some way to short the underlying. Will have to find some way of doing this indirectly. CFD's might be part of the answer but there's no way I would use a provider that makes it's own market, looks like I can't retire next month after all.

Cheers,

[peat]

why are you excluding CFD's.
have you explored options or futures markets?

[AMR]

I don't think CFDs are permitted in the USA.

[FarmerGeorge]

I don't have anything against CFD's on principal, and I'm from NZ so am able to use them. However to use some of these firms would be to take on more counterparty risk than I'm prepared to consider. I understand some of them make their own markets, or the market is only made up of their own clients. This just seems inherently dangerous to me. Still, I'm looking into it. The options market seems to have more potential for what I'm trying to achieve, perhaps futures also, but I'm not to savvy on pricing futures just yet.
Thanks for the advice and comments guys, any words are appreciated.

[macduffy]

Well, I learnt something today!
I've always understood that the technique (?) of shorting a stock was to sell without owning and that to do that one had to borrow the stock.
I read in one of the Aussie papers today that there is a proposal to ban shorting where it involves borrowing stock. The implication is that other methods of shorting will still be allowed.
Can someone clarify for this poor old confused investor?

[macduffy]

Well, I learnt something today!
I've always understood that the technique (?) of shorting a stock was to sell without owning and that to do that one had to borrow the stock.
I read in one of the Aussie papers today that there is a proposal to ban shorting where it involves borrowing stock. The implication is that other methods of shorting will still be allowed.
Can someone clarify for this poor old confused investor?

Er....

I think on reflection that the proposal is not to ban, but to make compulsory, the reporting, of short sales where stock is borrowed. The implication is that other short sales are already reported.
Unfortunately I can't now locate the article!
So despite my faulty short term memory, the point of my original query remains, ie how does one sell short without borrowing stock?