Shorting as you know is the opposite of going long the markets or a stock.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.
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