Forgive me if this sounds like a stupid question but I am accustomed to trading in an IRA where shorts are not allowed in equities. My question is how often and under what conditions are stocks/etf's you are shorting getting called away? Please tell me your stories. thanks btw:It sounds like you are completely at the mercy of your broker as they can buy you back in at any time.
If it's not a hard to borrow name it's unlikely. If it's a name that at times doesn't even have shares to locate then it's possible but still rare. I often short VERY hard to borrow names and when there's a borrow I pounce and then the locates disappear and even under those very extreme conditions I only get called away 10% of the time, which SUCKS, but it's part of the game when you short hard to borrows.