Shorting

What is it?

Shorting involves borrowing shares from your broker and selling them, all in an instant. Say the price is at $2 and I expect it to drop to $1. If this occurs, I can then buy the same amount of shares that I borrowed, and return them to my broker (plus interest). In this case, I would have viewed the shares as a 50% discount. The other 50% is pure profit.

Short selling is important because stock prices usually drop much more quickly than they go up. Fear is a more powerful feeling than greed. Therefore, short sellers, if they trade right, can make astonishing profits while other traders panic and start to sell off.

Penny stocks are highly risky to short sell, since they can have massive movements in any given day

Shorting is made possible by the fact that brokerages have a large listing of stocks. Lending out shares to short sellers is an easy and secure way to make extra money on shares in their possession.