{"id":343734,"date":"2020-10-27T10:01:01","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T10:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/?p=343734"},"modified":"2026-05-11T05:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T04:13:08","slug":"short-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/short-selling","title":{"rendered":"Short selling: A complete guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n@media (min-width: 768px) { #page, #side-nav-container { padding-top: 45px !important; } }\n#fixeddisclaimer { top: 0; left: 0; position: fixed; right: 0; width: 100%; -webkit-transition: 0.5s ease-in-out; transition: 0.5s ease-in-out; z-index: 40001; text-align: center; }\n.fixeddisclaimerbody { font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.2; background-color: #fff; -webkit-box-shadow: 0 -2px 18px #424242; box-shadow: 0 -2px 18px #424242; overflow: hidden; letter-spacing: -0.2px; }\n.gn .nav-slideout--active { top: auto !important; }\n@media (max-width: 767px) { .fixeddisclaimerbody { font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -0.4px; } }\n@media only screen and (max-width: 960px) and (min-width: 551px)  { #page, #side-nav-container { padding-top: 70px !important; } }\n@media only screen and (max-width: 550px) and (min-width: 401px)  { #page, #side-nav-container { padding-top: 80px !important; } }\n@media only screen and (max-width: 400px) { #page, #side-nav-container { padding-top: 90px !important; } }\n<\/style>\n\n<div id=\"fixeddisclaimer\" class=\"visible\" data-template=\"masthead-two-columns\">\n<div id=\"fstdisclaimer\" class=\"fixeddisclaimerbody\"><div class=\"has-padding-top-xxsmall has-padding-bottom-xxsmall text-center\">CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.<span id=\"secondsection\"> <strong>Between 50%-71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.<\/strong> You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Short selling is a trading strategy that lets you sell a stock before buying it, with a focus on making money from the stock declining in value in between the 2 actions. It tends to have a shorter time frame than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/how-to-buy-shares\">buying stocks<\/a>. Shorting can be used for speculation and to hedge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/investment-risk\">investment risk<\/a> for a long position in the same stock.<\/p><article class=\"luna-card\"><div class=\"luna-card luna-card--alt\"><div class=\"did-you-know u-bg--sky-subtle u-rounded--lg\" data-component=\"did-you-know\">\n        <div class=\"did-you-know__block\">\n        <h4 class=\"did-you-know__title\">\n            <span class=\"did-you-know__title-icon\">\n                <svg width=\"32\" height=\"32\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n                    <circle cx=\"16\" cy=\"16\" r=\"12\" fill=\"#00B2FF\"\/>\n                    <path d=\"M17.5 22.5C17.5 22.7967 17.412 23.0867 17.2472 23.3334C17.0824 23.58 16.8481 23.7723 16.574 23.8858C16.2999 23.9993 15.9983 24.0291 15.7074 23.9712C15.4164 23.9133 15.1491 23.7704 14.9393 23.5607C14.7296 23.3509 14.5867 23.0836 14.5288 22.7926C14.471 22.5017 14.5007 22.2001 14.6142 21.926C14.7277 21.6519 14.92 21.4176 15.1667 21.2528C15.4133 21.088 15.7033 21 16 21C16.3978 21 16.7794 21.158 17.0607 21.4393C17.342 21.7206 17.5 22.1022 17.5 22.5ZM16 9C13.2425 9 11 11.0188 11 13.5V14C11 14.2652 11.1054 14.5196 11.2929 14.7071C11.4804 14.8946 11.7348 15 12 15C12.2652 15 12.5196 14.8946 12.7071 14.7071C12.8946 14.5196 13 14.2652 13 14V13.5C13 12.125 14.3463 11 16 11C17.6538 11 19 12.125 19 13.5C19 14.875 17.6538 16 16 16C15.7348 16 15.4804 16.1054 15.2929 16.2929C15.1054 16.4804 15 16.7348 15 17V18C15 18.2652 15.1054 18.5196 15.2929 18.7071C15.4804 18.8946 15.7348 19 16 19C16.2652 19 16.5196 18.8946 16.7071 18.7071C16.8946 18.5196 17 18.2652 17 18V17.91C19.28 17.4913 21 15.6725 21 13.5C21 11.0188 18.7575 9 16 9ZM29 16C29 18.5712 28.2376 21.0846 26.8091 23.2224C25.3807 25.3603 23.3503 27.0265 20.9749 28.0104C18.5995 28.9944 15.9856 29.2518 13.4638 28.7502C10.9421 28.2486 8.6257 27.0105 6.80762 25.1924C4.98953 23.3743 3.75141 21.0579 3.2498 18.5362C2.74819 16.0144 3.00563 13.4006 3.98957 11.0251C4.97351 8.64968 6.63975 6.61935 8.77759 5.1909C10.9154 3.76244 13.4288 3 16 3C19.4467 3.00364 22.7512 4.37445 25.1884 6.81163C27.6256 9.24882 28.9964 12.5533 29 16ZM27 16C27 13.8244 26.3549 11.6977 25.1462 9.88873C23.9375 8.07979 22.2195 6.66989 20.2095 5.83733C18.1995 5.00476 15.9878 4.78692 13.854 5.21136C11.7202 5.6358 9.76021 6.68345 8.22183 8.22183C6.68345 9.7602 5.63581 11.7202 5.21137 13.854C4.78693 15.9878 5.00477 18.1995 5.83733 20.2095C6.66989 22.2195 8.07979 23.9375 9.88873 25.1462C11.6977 26.3549 13.8244 27 16 27C18.9164 26.9967 21.7123 25.8367 23.7745 23.7745C25.8367 21.7123 26.9967 18.9164 27 16Z\" fill=\"#232320\"\/>\n                <\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"did-you-know__title-text\">Quick note<\/span>\n        <\/h4>\n        <div class=\"did-you-know__content\">\n            This isn&#8217;t for a first-time investor. It&#8217;s more complex and risky than traditional investing, so it&#8217;s really only suitable for those who have a bit of experience in the field and know their way around this type of trading. Head to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/investments\">investing page<\/a> if you&#8217;re not quite as experienced.<\/p><p>Shorting has an infinite loss potential \u2013 the stock you&#8217;ve shorted going down in value will make a profit until that stock reaches zero, but if your prediction was wrong, and that stock price rises, it could rise infinitely, which means that your losses can be infinite. Take a look at the <a class=\"scroll\" href=\"#risks\">risks of shorting<\/a> to understand this further.<\/p>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/article><h3>How does shorting work?<\/h3><p>When you short sell, you choose a stock that you think will go down in value by a set date.<br \/>For example, say you thought that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/tech-stocks\/buy-amazon-shares\">Amazon&#8217;s stock price<\/a> is likely to go down in value \u2013 you might choose to short sell the stock.<\/p><p>But, to sell something, you&#8217;ve got to already own it, right? Not in this case. You can borrow the stock from your provider to sell it, then when you purchase it back later, you can give it back. You don&#8217;t have to hunt for someone to let you borrow their stocks \u2013 opening a sell position with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/cfd-trading\">CFD provider<\/a> will automatically do this for you.<\/p><p>The actual act of short selling is pretty simple. You just need to open up the app or website of your chosen provider, find the stock you want to sell and hit sell. But there&#8217;s more to it than that if you don&#8217;t want to just lose all of your money.<\/p><p>Short selling for a loss is when you lose money from shorting a stock. Short selling for a profit is when you make a profit from short selling \u2013 which is what investors are aiming for.<\/p><h3>How is short selling different to investing?<\/h3><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/long-term-investments\">Investing in the traditional sense is long term<\/a>. Investors buy stocks that they think will see long-term growth \u2014 typically because they have faith in the company or because their values are aligned with the company values. Often, people will hold investments for years.<\/p><p>Shorting is more speculative. You might make a decision to short a company because it&#8217;s getting negative press or because it&#8217;s reported less than expected earnings. It&#8217;s less to do with your values \u2013 in fact, you&#8217;re more likely to short a company that you don&#8217;t believe in.<\/p><table class=\"luna-table\"><thead class=\"luna-table__header\"><tr><th scope=\"col\"><\/th><th scope=\"col\">Short selling<\/th><th scope=\"col\">Investing<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody class=\"luna-table__body\"><tr><th scope=\"row\">Time frame<\/th><td>Short term \u2013 you don&#8217;t tend to hold positions for very long<\/td><td>Long term \u2013 positions are held for weeks, months or even years<\/td><\/tr><tr><th scope=\"row\">Effort required<\/th><td>A fair amount \u2013 you should check quite often as a lot can happen very quickly. Stop loss and take profit orders can help you out here.<\/td><td>Not much \u2013 you wouldn&#8217;t usually check in often. It&#8217;s often recommended that you leave your investments alone, even during volatility.<\/td><\/tr><tr><th scope=\"row\">Loss potential<\/th><td>Infinite loss potential<\/td><td>You can&#8217;t lose more than you invest<\/td><\/tr><tr><th scope=\"row\">The goal is&#8230;<\/th><td>For your chosen stock to decrease in value.<\/td><td>For your chosen stock to increase in value<\/td><\/tr><tr><th scope=\"row\">Dividends?<\/th><td>Can&#8217;t earn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/dividends\">dividends<\/a><\/td><td>Potential for dividends<\/td><\/tr><tr><th scope=\"row\">Suitable for&#8230;<\/th><td>Experienced investors<\/td><td>Beginner investors<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><h3 id=\"summary\">How to short a stock<\/h3><ol><li>Choose a stock that you think will go down in value.<\/li><li>Choose a trading provider that lets you short sell \u2013 this will be a provider that lets you trade contracts for difference (CFDs).<\/li><li>Borrow as much of the stock as you want to sell from your trading provider (often this happens in line with the next step).<\/li><li>Find the stock on your trading provider&#8217;s website. You might need the stock code for this. A simple web search of the company name followed by &#8220;stocks&#8221; can get you this information.<\/li><li>Open a short position, choosing how much you want to sell.<\/li><li>Adjust any stop loss or take profit settings.<\/li><li>Close your position or buy the shares back. If all has gone well, you&#8217;ll have bought them back for less than the value that you sold them for, meaning you&#8217;ll have made a profit.<\/li><\/ol><div class=\"did-you-know u-bg--sky-subtle u-rounded--lg\" data-component=\"did-you-know\">\n        <div class=\"did-you-know__block\">\n        <h4 class=\"did-you-know__title\">\n            <span class=\"did-you-know__title-icon\">\n                <svg width=\"32\" height=\"32\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\">\n                    <circle cx=\"16\" cy=\"16\" r=\"12\" fill=\"#00B2FF\"\/>\n                    <path d=\"M17.5 22.5C17.5 22.7967 17.412 23.0867 17.2472 23.3334C17.0824 23.58 16.8481 23.7723 16.574 23.8858C16.2999 23.9993 15.9983 24.0291 15.7074 23.9712C15.4164 23.9133 15.1491 23.7704 14.9393 23.5607C14.7296 23.3509 14.5867 23.0836 14.5288 22.7926C14.471 22.5017 14.5007 22.2001 14.6142 21.926C14.7277 21.6519 14.92 21.4176 15.1667 21.2528C15.4133 21.088 15.7033 21 16 21C16.3978 21 16.7794 21.158 17.0607 21.4393C17.342 21.7206 17.5 22.1022 17.5 22.5ZM16 9C13.2425 9 11 11.0188 11 13.5V14C11 14.2652 11.1054 14.5196 11.2929 14.7071C11.4804 14.8946 11.7348 15 12 15C12.2652 15 12.5196 14.8946 12.7071 14.7071C12.8946 14.5196 13 14.2652 13 14V13.5C13 12.125 14.3463 11 16 11C17.6538 11 19 12.125 19 13.5C19 14.875 17.6538 16 16 16C15.7348 16 15.4804 16.1054 15.2929 16.2929C15.1054 16.4804 15 16.7348 15 17V18C15 18.2652 15.1054 18.5196 15.2929 18.7071C15.4804 18.8946 15.7348 19 16 19C16.2652 19 16.5196 18.8946 16.7071 18.7071C16.8946 18.5196 17 18.2652 17 18V17.91C19.28 17.4913 21 15.6725 21 13.5C21 11.0188 18.7575 9 16 9ZM29 16C29 18.5712 28.2376 21.0846 26.8091 23.2224C25.3807 25.3603 23.3503 27.0265 20.9749 28.0104C18.5995 28.9944 15.9856 29.2518 13.4638 28.7502C10.9421 28.2486 8.6257 27.0105 6.80762 25.1924C4.98953 23.3743 3.75141 21.0579 3.2498 18.5362C2.74819 16.0144 3.00563 13.4006 3.98957 11.0251C4.97351 8.64968 6.63975 6.61935 8.77759 5.1909C10.9154 3.76244 13.4288 3 16 3C19.4467 3.00364 22.7512 4.37445 25.1884 6.81163C27.6256 9.24882 28.9964 12.5533 29 16ZM27 16C27 13.8244 26.3549 11.6977 25.1462 9.88873C23.9375 8.07979 22.2195 6.66989 20.2095 5.83733C18.1995 5.00476 15.9878 4.78692 13.854 5.21136C11.7202 5.6358 9.76021 6.68345 8.22183 8.22183C6.68345 9.7602 5.63581 11.7202 5.21137 13.854C4.78693 15.9878 5.00477 18.1995 5.83733 20.2095C6.66989 22.2195 8.07979 23.9375 9.88873 25.1462C11.6977 26.3549 13.8244 27 16 27C18.9164 26.9967 21.7123 25.8367 23.7745 23.7745C25.8367 21.7123 26.9967 18.9164 27 16Z\" fill=\"#232320\"\/>\n                <\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"did-you-know__title-text\">What is stop loss and take profit?<\/span>\n        <\/h4>\n        <div class=\"did-you-know__content\">\n            <strong>Stop loss<\/strong><br \/>Stop loss is a tool that can help you protect your investment to some degree. By choosing to use stop loss, you&#8217;re effectively instructing the provider to close at a specific rate. You can choose the value that you want it to close on in pounds and pence (or whatever currency it is traded in), or you can choose based on the amount you would lose.<\/p><p><strong>Take profit<\/strong><br \/>Take profit is the same as stop loss, just the other way around. Here, you enter the value that you want your position to close when it works in your favour. Again, you can choose based on the value of the stock or based on the amount of profit you&#8217;ll potentially make.<\/p><p><strong>How to use these features<\/strong><br \/>You might be tempted to make the stop loss just a little bit higher than the stock&#8217;s current value and make the take profit miles below the current value (and the opposite when buying). There&#8217;s a key reason why this won&#8217;t work.<\/p><p>It&#8217;s a race. You&#8217;re hoping that the stock&#8217;s value will get to take profit before it gets to stop loss, but stocks move up and down over a matter of seconds. If you load up a live stock chart and watch it for even a minute, the value will change constantly. The chances of it reaching your stop loss before it reaches your take profit are pretty high.<\/p>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<article class=\"luna-card luna-card--primary\"><div class=\"luna-card__block\"><h4>Example: Short selling<\/h4><p>Charmaine wants to short <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/buy-disney-shares\">Disney stocks<\/a>. She watched the latest <em>Toy Story<\/em> film and thought it wasn&#8217;t as good as the rest. She&#8217;s also researched its financials and thinks the stock price will go down*.<\/p><p>*This is <i>purely hypothetical. <\/i>The latest <em>Toy Story<\/em> film was great.<\/p><p>At the time of writing, the stock price for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/buy-disney-shares\">Disney<\/a> is US$124.97. For the sake of the example, let&#8217;s just round it to US$125.<\/p><p>So Charmaine thinks that in the next week, the price of Disney&#8217;s stock will decline in value. She opens a sell position for 50 shares. She&#8217;s now &#8220;short&#8221; 50 shares of Disney.<\/p><p>Charmaine could set a stop loss for, say, US$130 and a take profit of US$120. That means if the stock moves more than $5 in either direction, the position is closed for her. She&#8217;s using a provider with a mobile app that will give her a notification to let her know. In this example, at US$120, she&#8217;ll make a profit, and at US$130, she&#8217;ll make a loss.<\/p><p>The next part is the waiting game. Usually, with investing, you should steer clear of looking at your investments all the time, but with this, you&#8217;ll want to keep a bit of an eye on it. Don&#8217;t sit at your desk at work constantly refreshing the page, though. It&#8217;ll waste your time and frustrate you.<\/p><p>That&#8217;s all there is to it \u2013 if the stock price does go down, she&#8217;ll be able to see approximately how much she&#8217;ll have made. A negative movement doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean she&#8217;s made money. There are some costs involved. If the negative movement is more than the costs for the trade, Charmaine&#8217;s got herself a profit.<\/p><p>Charmaine will need to manually close the position unless she wants to wait it out to see if it automatically closes at her stop loss or take profit orders.<p><small><strong>* This is a fictional, but realistic, example.<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div><\/article><h3>What are the costs of short selling?<\/h3><p><strong>Margin interest<\/strong><br \/>To short sell, you usually need to trade on margin, which means that you&#8217;re borrowing in order to trade. You may need to pay interest on the value of the shares that you borrow while you&#8217;ve got a position open.<\/p><p><strong>Borrowing stocks<\/strong><br \/>Sometimes, it might be difficult to get hold of shares to borrow. There may be a fee that is in place for these stocks.<\/p><p><strong>Dividends<\/strong><br \/>Like margin interest, you might be responsible for covering the dividend payments on the stock to the provider that you&#8217;ve borrowed the stocks from.<\/p><h3>What are the perfect conditions for short selling?<\/h3><p>Stocks go down quicker than they go up. This means that you want to get in at the right time to actually make some money from it.<\/p><p><strong>The ideal condition for short selling is a bear market. <\/strong><br \/>A bear market is one where the stocks are declining in value \u2013 usually by more than 20%. An example of this is the bear market that occurred right at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, where most markets crashed. For short sellers, this was an ideal time to be shorting stocks.<\/p><h3>Short selling tips<\/h3><ul><li><strong>Don&#8217;t start if you&#8217;re not completely sure what you&#8217;re doing. <\/strong>You can practise with a provider that has a virtual portfolio.<\/li><li><strong>Short in a bear market.<\/strong> This is where stocks are moving down.<\/li><li><strong>Look for stocks that are below their moving average.<\/strong> You can use tools on your chosen trading platform to find out the moving average. Look at 30 weeks or so.<\/li><li><strong>Avoid expensive stocks.<\/strong> You might think that what goes up must come down, but these stocks could grow a lot more.<\/li><li><strong>Do your research.<\/strong> Much like getting a puppy or buying a new car, you should research stocks before diving in.<\/li><\/ul><div class=\"importantText importantText__callout\">\n  <p> Shorting is a chance to make the most out of a bear market or a specific stock that&#8217;s not doing so well. To reduce costs, try not to leave positions open for too long \u2013 timing is everything. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Non-traditional short selling<\/h3><p>Borrowing shares from a broker isn&#8217;t the only way to short a stock. You can also use the following:<\/p><ul class=\"list-10\"><li><strong>Derivatives.<\/strong> Derivatives allow you to speculate on prices without actually owning the shares. You can short sell through spread betting or CFD trading, but be aware that they&#8217;re extremely complex and risky financial instruments. Most investors lose money when trading this way.<\/li><li><strong>Option trading.<\/strong> This is (only slightly) less risky than traditional short selling. You can purchase an option on a stock that allows you to sell it at the initial market price within the option&#8217;s expiry date. If the price goes down, you sell, buy back at the new price and make a profit. If the price goes up, you don&#8217;t sell at all and only lose the value of the option, thus limiting the risk. With traditional short selling, you can buy back whenever you want (unless the owner of the stock claims it back), whereas options normally have a fairly short expiry date. Read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/share-trading\/options-trading\">our guide on option trading<\/a> to learn more.<\/li><\/ul><h3>Risks of short selling a stock<\/h3><p>Repeat after us: short selling is for expert investors and you shouldn&#8217;t do it unless you<em> know<\/em> what you&#8217;re doing.<\/p><p>The reason why it&#8217;s considered very risky is that it could make you lose &#8220;infinite&#8221; money. When you buy a share and &#8220;go long&#8221;, the maximum you can lose is the amount you invested. When you &#8220;go short&#8221; instead, there are no theoretical limits to how much share prices could go up, and thus to how much you could lose. Not good.<\/p><p>It&#8217;s especially dangerous if a lot of people are short selling shares from the same company and the price unexpectedly goes up. At that point, everyone will start buying back really quickly, causing the stock to go up even more. It&#8217;s what&#8217;s called a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/cfd-trading\/how-to-trade-a-short-squeeze\">&#8220;short squeeze&#8221;<\/a> and it easily becomes a vicious circle that turns out to be very expensive for short sellers.<\/p><p>Finally, don&#8217;t forget that short selling isn&#8217;t free. Brokers will charge a fee for lending the stocks, and there are fees for other short-selling methods that you should consider.<\/p><h3>Bottom line<\/h3><p>Short selling is very different from traditional investing. Instead of choosing stocks that you think will grow and make you a long-term profit, you choose stocks that you think are going to decrease in value over the short term. If you&#8217;re a beginner and want to give shorting a go, do it with a virtual portfolio first to see how you get on. Once you think you&#8217;ve got the knack of it, try it with small amounts.<\/p><article class=\"luna-card luna-card--alt\"><div class=\"luna-card__block has-padding-small\"><p>All investing should be regarded as longer term. The value of your investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you\u2019re not sure which investments are right for you, please seek out a financial adviser. Capital at risk.<\/p><\/div><\/article><br \/><h3>Frequently asked questions<\/h3><ul class=\"luna-accordionGroup accordionGroup\"><li class=\"luna-accordion\" data-accordion=\"accordion\">\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__summary\">\n    <h4 class=\"luna-accordion__heading\">\n      <button class=\"luna-accordion__action collapsed\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion0000000000\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion0000000000\">\n        <span class=\"luna-accordion__title\">Why are short sellers viewed with suspicion?<\/span>\n        <svg class=\"luna-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-down\" data-accordion-icon=\"show\"><\/use>\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-up\" data-accordion-icon=\"hide\" class=\"is-hidden\"><\/use>\n        <\/svg>\n      <\/button>\n    <\/h4>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__details collapse\" aria-hidden=\"true\" id=\"accordion0000000000\" data-accordion=\"details\">\n    <div class=\"accordionContent\"><p>When the price of a stock decreases in value, some people blame short sellers, suggesting that the stock value is driven further down by short sellers. This isn&#8217;t the case, however \u2013 short selling doesn&#8217;t impact the share price of a stock.<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/li><li class=\"luna-accordion\" data-accordion=\"accordion\">\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__summary\">\n    <h4 class=\"luna-accordion__heading\">\n      <button class=\"luna-accordion__action collapsed\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion0000000001\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion0000000001\">\n        <span class=\"luna-accordion__title\">What is the opposite of shorting a stock?<\/span>\n        <svg class=\"luna-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-down\" data-accordion-icon=\"show\"><\/use>\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-up\" data-accordion-icon=\"hide\" class=\"is-hidden\"><\/use>\n        <\/svg>\n      <\/button>\n    <\/h4>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__details collapse\" aria-hidden=\"true\" id=\"accordion0000000001\" data-accordion=\"details\">\n    <div class=\"accordionContent\">The opposite of going short is going long \u2013 which means buying a stock.<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/li><li class=\"luna-accordion\" data-accordion=\"accordion\">\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__summary\">\n    <h4 class=\"luna-accordion__heading\">\n      <button class=\"luna-accordion__action collapsed\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion0000000002\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion0000000002\">\n        <span class=\"luna-accordion__title\">Does shorting a stock bring the price down?<\/span>\n        <svg class=\"luna-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-down\" data-accordion-icon=\"show\"><\/use>\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-up\" data-accordion-icon=\"hide\" class=\"is-hidden\"><\/use>\n        <\/svg>\n      <\/button>\n    <\/h4>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__details collapse\" aria-hidden=\"true\" id=\"accordion0000000002\" data-accordion=\"details\">\n    <div class=\"accordionContent\">Not really. Shorting a stock has little impact on the stock price.<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/li><li class=\"luna-accordion\" data-accordion=\"accordion\">\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__summary\">\n    <h4 class=\"luna-accordion__heading\">\n      <button class=\"luna-accordion__action collapsed\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion0000000003\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion0000000003\">\n        <span class=\"luna-accordion__title\">How long can you short a stock?<\/span>\n        <svg class=\"luna-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-down\" data-accordion-icon=\"show\"><\/use>\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-up\" data-accordion-icon=\"hide\" class=\"is-hidden\"><\/use>\n        <\/svg>\n      <\/button>\n    <\/h4>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__details collapse\" aria-hidden=\"true\" id=\"accordion0000000003\" data-accordion=\"details\">\n    <div class=\"accordionContent\">Shorting isn&#8217;t for the long term \u2013 you can short one for as long as you like, but you&#8217;ll find yourself paying a lot to keep your position open overnight.<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/li><li class=\"luna-accordion\" data-accordion=\"accordion\">\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__summary\">\n    <h4 class=\"luna-accordion__heading\">\n      <button class=\"luna-accordion__action collapsed\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"accordion0000000004\" data-toggle=\"collapse\" data-target=\"#accordion0000000004\">\n        <span class=\"luna-accordion__title\">Is short selling illegal?<\/span>\n        <svg class=\"luna-icon\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-down\" data-accordion-icon=\"show\"><\/use>\n          <use xlink:href=\"#chevron-up\" data-accordion-icon=\"hide\" class=\"is-hidden\"><\/use>\n        <\/svg>\n      <\/button>\n    <\/h4>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"luna-accordion__details collapse\" aria-hidden=\"true\" id=\"accordion0000000004\" data-accordion=\"details\">\n    <div class=\"accordionContent\">No, but there have been instances where it has been temporarily banned, such as during the 2007 financial crisis.<\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Short selling is a trading strategy where you borrow stocks to sell them with the hope that they will decrease in value. 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