Anybody try to short financials today?

Just wandering how difficult it was at various prop and retail firms to locate.

Also, are you getting charged interest.

Thanks.

 

if your gonna short financials play the double short etfs dont bother with actual shorting

 

TS gave a notice that basically said any financials where off limits to shorting.

tried to short several with IB.

BANKoAMER nope
FNM nope
FRE nope

Ended up trading options to give a synthetic short (wrote ITM calls) with FNM and did ok.

Sure sucks when only the MMs are allowed to short.

Kinda funny how traders are shut out of the game but MMs (like timber hill which is a part of IB) is allowed to in the name of allowing traders better liquidity. Basically giving MMs a money printing press.

The real crime going on here is that there are two classes of people, those that can make money by shorting (even naked shorting) and the rest of us who are not allowed to hedge our portfolio with shorting weak stocks.

 

I had trouble shorting one on Friday around 1:30 pm ET and had to switch to another more mainstream brokerage account for it to work.

 

I can short any of these at my firm at an added cost of one and one half pennies per share. The problem is you have to tell them the number of shares you need and after they provide you with the requested amount you will be charged for the amount they provided even if you don't short a single share.
The analogy here is - once you place the order you're stuck with it. No cancellations allowed.

 

It sounds to me like even though this measure is supposed to stop "naked" short selling, its having the effect of banning shorting altogether.

If IB can't locat BoA stock then who the hell can?

 

So if you get say 1000 shares, can you short and cover all day or do you need to request every time you open a new short?

 

The SEC is barking up the wrong tree.

 

Once you use up the quota of 1,000 shares you have to request for more. I am not positive but I believe this is how their setup works. I lost interest because of all the nuances involved and didn't pursue further.

I believe the concept is to locate and borrow the shares and then make them available for you to short as per SEC regs.

 

If you are having trouble shorting the financials, say BOA, is there a reason you don't set up a synthetic short by selling calls and buying puts ? Or are these just quick in and out shorts to scalp a dollar or 2 per share?