Sorry for the stupid question but im learning and i not trying to do anything illegal and go to jail or get fined, im poor enough as it is. i hear about pump and dump being illegal and im kinda confused, but i was wondering if, i buy a stock and then close the position and collect my gains and then SHORT it right after on the same day with a daytrading account that has the shorts available? example: i buy BAC for 24.00 then sell BAC 24.25 for a profit and then immedialty short it at 24.24 and then close the short position at 24.15, and then buy BAC again at 24.16 and sell at 24.25 again.....ALL IN THE SAME DAY?
Adding to what Tom said...make sure you have a clear reason and trade management rules to go long or short.
no problem at all... some flat rate brokers let you do both at the same time for the same fee, e.g. if you are long 100 - sell 200, now you are short 100
Pump and dump, is when you lie about the stock to make it gain value then sell out, your not big enough to count / affect the stock at all, do as you wish.
What you are doing is PERFECTLY LEGAL. Rest assured that you will NEVER go to jail for this. Pump & Dump refers to a scam or fraud scheme where the fraudster, knowing that a company is just an ordinary company or even in financial, acquires a sizable position in the company, and then actively promote it to be winner to unknowing investors on a massive scale to artificially inflate its price to an grossly overstated value, known as the "Pump" and then at the highest price, sell all of his/her positions causing the price to come crashing down to its original value, hence the "Dump". While the fraudster has amassed a huge fortune by this scheme, all the investors who've bought the stock are left holding the bag with the worthless crap of the stock. Watch the movie "Wolf of Wall Street" and you will see examples of it. What you are doing is just normal daytrading. As long as what you are doing is NOT based on insider information, you are fine.