Brokerage Firm Recommendation Needed for Shorting Stocks

WinSum · Sep 27, 2003

I had gotten a Short signal on NTES yesterday at 9:35am ET on my chart but I couldn't locate any stocks available for borrowing at Ameritrade, IB, or TradeStation.

Another Opportunity Lost.

Is anyone using a firm that currently have NTES available for shorting ? I'm looking for a firm that have good supply of stocks available for shorting.

A lot of firms claim that they have supply of stocks but I find that it is only true when we are in a bull market and the supply quickly vanish when we are in a bear market and that is the time when we really want to start shorting.

The firm must be SIPC insured. I'm not looking for bucket shops.

TIA

H2O · Sep 27, 2003

You can consider using SSF's.... Don't know if they're available for your stock though

H2O · Sep 27, 2003

But be aware of the spread :mad:

marketsurfer · Sep 27, 2003

trade station via bear sterns has NEVER not allowed me to short a stock. their short inventory is second to none.

best,

surfer

WinSum · Sep 27, 2003

This post is not aimed at disparaging Ameritrade, IB or Tradestation. No flame war plz.

I am only trying to find out if anyone knows for sure if their brokerage firm currently allows them to short NTES online.

I looked at SSF to see if it can be an alternative but found out most of the SSF are only for widely traded stocks. The Nasdaq stocks that I like short like NTES or SSYS don't have SSF.

Peace,

Lobster · Sep 27, 2003

Geez, have you looked at NTES lately? I wonder why there are no shares available to borrow... If you could short shares without borrowing, there would probably be 3 times as many shares currently short as there are shares outstanding.

Zuizo · Sep 27, 2003

Cybertrader had plenty of SOHU SINA and NTES to short. Their pool of resources include Schwab and Penson.

occasionally, Cyber will not have shares of a given stock to short but it is a rare occurrence.

-- Z

WinSum · Sep 27, 2003

Thank you Zuizo.

alanm · Sep 28, 2003

Must be available from Schwab then. myTrack (Penson) doesn't show it as available.

It is not on Assent's (www.assent.com) hard-to-borrow list, which ostensibly means that it is available, but I can't verify that until Monday (I'll try to remember).

Hopefully, you are thinking about intra-day trading only. If you want to hold it for a while, remember that there is the risk of a forced buy-in, particularly if the borrow pool is mainly comprised of just a few large positions. It sure would be nice if this information were available, maybe published as a "buy-in risk factor" by the lending firms.

crazy_trader · Sep 28, 2003

Don't think SSF is available for SINA SOHU NTES.
Maybe short through put option.

Quote from H2O:

You can consider using SSF's.... Don't know if they're available for your stock though