I have summer off, looking to trade from Greece, would like to learn to short. Looking for solid ideas on books, etc.
Thanks,
keith
Once your comfortable with going long in the markets you may want to become comfortable with shorting as well.
After all when you sell a stock for a profit what you are saying is that you expect it is at or near its high, you expect that it will soon be lower in price or why sell.
The main difference between long and shorting a stock is that there is theoretically unlimited risk when you short a stock. That is to say the stock you short could go up and up causing you to lose and lose. Going long a stock limits your risk to the amount you invested. If it goes to zero you lose what you put in.
I primarily short only two things these days. IBM and the QQQ’s. I short the stock of IBM and will also buy options or puts on IBM. I only buy puts on the QQQ’s.
If you are comfortable trading long with charts or whatever system you use the shorting of a stock is just playing the negative side of your analysis and is really nothing new to learn.
All of your normal trading factors should be used … Risk tolerance, Gain Level to exit or what ever.
Contact your broker for the availability of the shares to short… And make money after you sell your long position.
To learn more about short selling, try reading the
following books: "Tools of the Bear: How Any Investor
Can Make Money When Stocks Go Down" - Charles J. Caes;
"Financial Shenanigans: How To Detect Accounting
Gimmicks & Fraud" - Howard M. Shilit; "When Stocks
Crash Nicely: The Finer Art of Short Selling" - Kathry
F. Staley; "Selling Short: Risks, Rewards and
Strategies for Short Selling Stocks, Options and
Futures" - Joseph A. Walker. None of these are perfect
in their coverage of short selling but each has its
strengths
Bob, thanks for the insight.
just don't want to screw up that first trade. thanks for the book ideas, i'll check them out!