Question about IB TWS

I'm going to start using TWS for trading e-mini futures next week. My question is about short sell order. Action column in TWS has "Buy", "Sell" and "SellShort",but no "Buy to cover" as some brokers have. If I use "Sell" to enter short position,will it be executed as short or I must use "Sell short" option?
Thank you in advance .
Vas62

 

Sell works just fine to open a new short position. Buy covers a short position.

If you're long and want to close . . . sell.
If you're short and want to close . . . buy.
If you're flat and want to go short . . . sell
If you're flat and want to go long . . . buy.

I guess that about does it

You'll love TWS once you get to know it; it's the fastest and easiest interface out there IMVHO.

 

Thank you .That was quick response. It seems I put it in wrong
thread(Classified)Don't know how it happened. It has to be in futures trading.

 

Send an PM to the moderator; he'll get it straightened out.

 

If "sell" will act as "sell short" then there is no need for this additional "sell short", right? What's the purpose then?

 

Right.

I'm clueless as to why it's even there.

 

Ok. Let's leave it there. I got your response.
Thank you.

 

"sell short" is for stocks only.

 

The sell short feature is for brokers/funds/banks that may using IB solely as an executing broker. As IB may not know their positions, they are required to flag their short equity trades as short sells. For our cleared clients (that's you), there is no need to use this function since we know your position and can accurately flag an order.

 

Thank you for response def.