As incredible as it seems, it's real. Tryed this morning to short SPY and cannot at TradeStation. I ALMOST had enough of it.
Not just SPY, but DIA and QQQQ too. This is really annoying. Anyone else, with a different broker, experiencing the same?
Um... no. I'm going to preface my opinion with the fact that I never trade those etf's directly. I only trade their options... but. If my broker was unable to make shares available to short on the most liquid stocks EVER I would kick them to the curb.
How about buying SDS? They are the same thing. Just buy 50 lots for every 100 lots you sell the SPY short.
It's *close* to the same thing... except that it's 2x leverage (something you hinted at) and, as those who have been trading these funds on a regular basis will tell you, they don't correlate 100%.
No surprise here, SDS is also on the not-easy-to-borrow list. Of course, I could juggle between SPY and SDS, but this really sucks.