can't short spy or Q's friday

E

edwardoRL

Lightspeed wasn't allowing any shorts on spy or qqq last friday they said if I wanted to get shorts it would be at a twenty dollar per trade extra charge. I don't know if this was normal or something they decided to do. Has anyone experienced this last friday with another broker?
 
<confused
I thought the SPY and the Q's were Indexes. Ya mean to tell me ya can't short an Index?
That's really weird.
I hope someone smarter than me chimes in here and 'splains it.
 
Quote from IanMacQuaide:

<confused
I thought the SPY and the Q's were Indexes. Ya mean to tell me ya can't short an Index?
That's really weird.
I hope someone smarter than me chimes in here and 'splains it.
More...

they're index-based securities, not indexes. big difference.

ed, i don't think exchanges charge people when they employ breakers. it's an all/none situation. i mean, when you wanna short a million shares, $20 is a spit in an ocean.
 
They said there had been more than a ten percent drop in the market but the two days before friday 12 the market went up so what the heck they were baseing this ban on shorting the spy or qqq is beyound me. If this were true it would be acrossed the board and all brokers would of been limited or so I would think but the kicker that got me was I could do it if I would pay twenty dollers per trade then they would allow me to short. Needless to say I didn't trade that day but pissed me off and made me wonder if this was just lightspeeds bs.
 
Quote from edwardoRL:

Lightspeed wasn't allowing any shorts on spy or qqq last friday they said if I wanted to get shorts it would be at a twenty dollar per trade extra charge. I don't know if this was normal or something they decided to do. Has anyone experienced this last friday with another broker?
More...

If you can't short SPY or QQQ, why not go long inverse ETF.
 
Sounds like the two ETFs you're talking about became hard to borrow. This can happen in a market like this from the high open interest in weekly options. They are passing on the extra cost of getting locates.
 
Quote from Gubinec:

they're index-based securities, not indexes. big difference.

ed, i don't think exchanges charge people when they employ breakers. it's an all/none situation. i mean, when you wanna short a million shares, $20 is a spit in an ocean.
More...
Thanks! Now I know.
 
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