Short selling is most often presented as a technique reserved for the elite and is generally controversial. Even so, it is an important tool for all kinds of traders and investors. When trading shares on the stock exchange, it is possible to generate profits by betting on falling prices. Even in the long term, investors who specialize in the field have the technical ability to take advantage of short sales to make more money. If you also want to take advantage of the benefits of short selling, this article will surely interest you!
What is short selling and how can I take advantage of it in online trading?
When you sell an asset short, it means you are selling what you do not have. Selling short or selling short (in Shakespeare’s language) will allow you to make a profit with decreasing prices. This can happen for several reasons. To sell a certain financial instrument you don’t have, you must first borrow from those who do. The result of this is a short sale, as you are selling something you have borrowed from someone else. The process is therefore very different from selling core assets, when you are holding a long position.
If you sell when you have a long position, you will go down from long to single. However, when you sell a stock market without a position, you go from single to short. Naked short selling occurs when you sell an asset that you do not own without first borrowing it. In some markets this transaction is strictly forbidden, but others tolerate it, although it remains undervalued because of the risks involved. On the other hand, short selling can cause large losses if you make the worst mistakes in trading.
Short selling is prohibited in several countries around the world.
Why do some traders and investors opt for short selling stocks?
In general, you can choose to use short selling for three main reasons. First, this method will allow you to generate profits from a decrease in price that you anticipate. This decline may affect a particular asset or the entire market.
It will then allow you to cover the risk of market price devaluation. When you resell certain shares while maintaining a portfolio of instruments, you can cancel the market risk of the portfolio or the systematic risk. In this way, the portfolio can still benefit from share price growth, but will not be adversely affected by the price decline affecting the market as a whole.
Finally, you can also use the technique to make money by betting on the performance of one stock asset over another. For example, if you believe that one financial instrument will be more profitable than another, you can open a long position on the first instrument and a short position on the second. The combination of these positions will be profitable, if the first asset ends up performing better than the second. This process can even generate profits when both prices fall, and this is one of the reasons why this technique is interesting. Investment portfolios that target absolute returns, rather than relative gains, can benefit from short selling.
In other words, a portfolio that seeks positive returns, rather than seeking to outperform a particular benchmark, will have to practice short selling more extensively. Traders and hedge funds can benefit from a fall in the stock market by shorting shares. This process will allow long and short funds to generate profits in times of high volatility. In addition, this same volatility can be reduced by taking short positions. However, bear in mind that it is impossible to anticipate certain events, but keeping short positions in a portfolio can reduce the damage of the loss, if there is a loss.
How do you make short sales?
Short sales can be particularly profitable.
With the popularization of commercial platforms thanks to technological advances in the field of information technology, the use of short sales has become much simpler and much more accessible. However, for institutions wishing to conduct multi-level short selling, the process can always be complex, so they always use professional traders, who also have academic degrees in the field of international finance.
When a housing trader decides to use short selling to make money, he must first borrow the shares he wants to sell. At this point, he will find several trading platforms that will allow him to do so by acting as automatic intermediaries to secure the borrowed shares. As for the borrowers, they must pay the price of the stock loan and the institutions lend their shares to increase the return on their investments.
Loan rates vary according to interest rates, at the time of the transaction, and also taking into account the term of the loan. In normal times, rates do not exceed 1%, but in special cases they can be as high as 20%. This is especially the case when demand far exceeds supply. When the stock has been secured and the interest rates negotiated appropriately, the stock is delivered to the borrower under the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, the borrower can resell the share at the market price and the new owner will receive it in due course.
The fund that provided the shares for sale will receive payment for the shares based on their sale price. They will therefore have an amount equal to the difference in the value of the shares between the time of the loan and the sale, but the borrowers still owe them the shares they borrowed. The short-selling position is closed when the borrowers buy back the shares and return them to the suppliers. The profits and losses from this sale will be equal to the value of the stock on sale, minus the amount paid to buy it back plus the amount paid to borrow the stock.