How to Short Sell on Robinhood
- Open a Margin Account. Short selling involves selling stock you don’t own, which means you’ll need to borrow it from your broker.
- Identify a Short Sale Candidate. Once you have a margin account with a broker that offers short selling, your next step is to open a short position.
- Define Your Exit Strategy. One of the biggest mistakes new investors make in both long and short positions is opening a position without having a clear and specific ...
- Open a Short Position. After identifying a prime candidate for a short sale and deciding exactly when you’ll exit, you’re ready to open a short position.
- Cover the Position. The final step in a short sale is to “cover” the position. ...
Does Robinhood let you short stocks?
While various other brokers offer this facility, Robinhood does not allow its users to short sell a stock. But, as a trader or investor, the stock market provides amazing opportunities to profit from short selling. We’ll discuss some methods and alternatives to shorting a stock on Robinhood.
How to close stock positions fast on Robinhood?
How to sell a stock
- Navigate to the stock’s detail page. ...
- Tap Trade.
- Tap Sell.
- In the upper right corner, choose if you want to sell in dollars or shares.
- Tap on Review to check over your order details to make sure everything is correct.
- If all looks good, swipe up to submit your sell order.
Can You short sell on Robinhood?
While that may be an advantage, you still can’t short sell a stock on Robinhood. So short selling is not possible on this trading platform. While various other brokers offer this facility, Robinhood does not allow its users to short sell a stock.
What are some good ETFs on Robinhood?
Robinhood ETFs: Should You Buy These 5 Top Picks?
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEMKT:VOO) has a very simple objective: to match the performance of the S&P 500 Index.
- SPDR S&P 500 ETF. An alternative to the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEMKT:SPY). ...
- ARK Innovation ETF. ...
- Direxion Daily S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Bull 2x ETF. ...
- iShares Silver Trust. ...

How does short selling work?
Short selling allows you to leverage a position on borrowed stocks when the market sells so you can profit from any price drops.
What is short selling?
Short selling, also known as “going short,” is a trading strategy that allows you to profit when the share price of a specific stock falls. With a short sale, the investor bets that the stock price will fall. They borrow a set amount of shares from the broker and sell them immediately.
How to take advantage of price drops?
By borrowing stocks, you can take advantage of price drops by selling then buying back the same shares at a lower price before returning them to brokers . Here is a simple example of how short selling works. Say that stock XYZ is currently at $20 a share and you think that the price will soon fall to $10 a share.
What is put option?
A put option gives you the right to sell a specific portion of an underlying security at a specific price. The value of a put option increases as the price of the underlying security falls as more people will be looking for a way to sell their falling shares.
Can you short sell on Robinhood?
Strictly speaking, no, you cannot short sell on Robinhood. Robinhood recently introduced margin accounts that allow borrowing stocks on credit, but they are explicitly designed to not allow shorting. Robinhood margin accounts only let traders make certain options trades or borrow cash for a long position in stocks.
Can you make a high gain on short selling?
With short selling, it is possible to make extremely high gains if a stock price significantly drops. In practice, the exact calculations are more complex as you need to factor in any interest on borrowed stocks and transaction fees.
Can you trade options to profit?
You can also trade options to profit when stock prices fall. Options are contracts that give investors the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific security.
What is Robinhood trading?
Robinhood is the broker for traders who want a simple, easy-to-understand layout without all the bells and whistles other brokers offer. Though its trading options and account types are limited, even an absolute beginner can quickly master Robinhood’s intuitive and streamlined platform.
How much margin do you need to have for Robinhood?
For Robinhood, a margin account requires a portfolio worth either $2,000 or 100% of the purchase price. You also need to meet margin maintenance requirements. This differs from position to position but usually margin maintenance requires that you have 25% to 35% of the total value of the position in account equity.
What happens if you don't own shares?
If you don’t own the shares, you will borrow them from your broker and immediately sell them at their current price.
How to short sell stock?
Step 1: Open a Margin Account. Short selling involves selling stock you don’t own, which means you’ll need to borrow it from your broker. You can’t do that with a standard brokerage account. Instead you need what’s called a margin account. A margin account is an account that is authorized to borrow stocks or funds.
What is the final step in a short sale?
The final step in a short sale is to “cover” the position. This just means buying back the same number of shares you borrowed after the price (hopefully) decreases. Once you buy them, the broker will immediately take the shares and any fees.
What are the biggest mistakes that new investors make in both long and short positions?
One of the biggest mistakes new investors make in both long and short positions is opening a position without having a clear and specific exit strategy. If you’re not buying and holding, you need to know exactly when you will get out of a position.
What is a good short sale?
A good candidate for a short sale is a stock that’s experiencing a sudden and dramatic price increase that can’t be explained by any significant changes to its financials. Here are some of the signs investors look for: A stock is rallying while the rest of the market is relatively flat or declining.
How to buy put on Robinhood?
Step 1. Once you are on the stock screen for the security you’d like to buy puts on and click the “Trade” button, you will see another button pop up that says “Trade Options” – click this one. Next, you will be taken to a screen with the available options for purchase or sale. Step 2.
How to short a stock?
Arguably the most direct way to short a specific stock is simply to sell it short. For this to be possible your broker will actually allow you to borrow shares of the stock that you wish to short (for a small fee), and then you will simply sell these borrowed shares in the market. When you want to cover, you simply buy back ...
Does Robinhood short put options?
Robinhood does support buying put options, which is another, more multi-dimensional, way to short a specific stock. This approach can be equally effective as short selling provided the investor understands all the factors that impact options pricing.
Does Robinhood cover shorting?
When you want to cover, you simply buy back the shares you sold (hopefully at a lower price) and the price difference is your gain/loss. Robinhood doesn’t currently support short selling (another $0-commission broker, Webull, does offer shorting stocks).
