Can I long and short simultaneously ?

maybe but you did not mention that in your post

 

Of course you can be flat

 

You would be just freezing your loss. It is possible with some fx, cfd bucket shop brokers, some might even offset margins (-drawdown), and some people believe this is a method. But people believe in all kind of weird stuff...

 

You could always do a buy 1 sell 2 deal, not withstanding the tax consequences (wash sale).
Index etfs with inverses are easier for this.
With futures you could use next month for offsetting positions.
With 2 distinct accounts tracking is easier.

 

%%
YES;
its possible. SSO+ sds NOT that you would want to do that all the time, even in a roth/back door roth [tax free]account..............................

 

I've used directional vs inverse ETF pairs to hedge, eg UCO/SCO SPXS/SPXL etc

 

Hello again Robert. Isn't shorting the box illegal nowadays? Or am I missing something? We used to do it all of the time in the olden days to avoid the uptick rule.

 

I'm not aware of that SEC or FINRA rule, but we remove boxed trades.

 

Ok, I guess there are a few different ways to use "box" nowadays. I was referring to shorting in one account and being long in another. And I originally thought that's what the OP was getting at.

 

I highly doubt long equity in one account and the same stock short in other account is allowed on a larger scale...
Cause it would allow you to bypass SSR and open a short position by selling your longs into the bid.