There was a posting that stated it depended on broker. But by the response I guess not in this case. Thanks!
Write down the info from the trade(date,time,contra) and if they did take the gain make sure its not in your 1099..They all try to take the gain and forget to remove the gain from your taxes..The rule is 30sec to cover.What firm are you with?
At IB you don't have to specify as the system knows your position and flags properly. The sell short flags are in the TWS for institutional customers who may give-up their trades.
This whole discussion made me think of Island's Clearly Erroneous Pass-Through Program in which someone can challenge a trade they feel was executed erroneously - which is explained here: https://subscriber1.island.com/help/faq/ce.asp for those who are unfamiliar with this. I shorted 1000 shares of EMC one day on ISLD at the market open and covered a couple of minutes later right after it opened on the NYSE floor. I made $1900 as it opened considerably lower and the person I sold my shares to called Island to contest the trade. After reviewing the trade Island decided to let the trade stand and also charged the person challenging our trade $.20 per share ($200) which was then transferred to my account. My broker had notified me that this was happening and said that ISLD had wanted to hear my side of the story. But by the time I received the message they had already decided. Fortunately in my favor in this case.
Hey, I saw that you made a statement regarding that the rule is 30 seconds. Could you tell me where you got that from or why you said the rule is 30 seconds? Thanks.
With Datek, if you want to short, you must sell air i.e. sell shares you do not have. Because, at Datek, you have only two choices: buy or sell. With IB you have not two but three choices: "buy" or "sell" or "short sell". And this is how brokers like IB can get you. You wanted to short, but didn't click on the "short sell" button. In other words, IB can get you for an "illegal short sale", but Datek can't.
This is incorrect for retail accounts at IB. If you are flat and you specify a sale, then it is deemed a short sale whether you like it or not. IB won't "get you." I don't know about non-retail accounts.
You're right. I was thinking about another broker (who is not Datek and not IB), whose trading software I've used recently but can't seem to recall their name off the top of my head. The point I was trying to make was that "there are brokers who can get you, and there are brokers who cannot get you".