# Short Selling US Markets



## petelah (8 April 2016)

Hi Guys,

I am wondering what brokers you use to short sell stocks on the US markets.

I have so far only found Suretrader who will let me short US markets but their fees are quite high although they use DAS Trader which is a great platform.

Can anyone tell me if E-Trade lets you short US markets? Interactive Brokers only let you buy long unless you register as a corporation. But I don't really want to go through setting up an LLC and tax implications that come with it by paying myself from that as a company.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks legends! Have a profitable day!


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## CanOz (8 April 2016)

petelah said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I am wondering what brokers you use to short sell stocks on the US markets.
> 
> ...






Interactive Brokers, but not on margin.

CFD providers, such as IG Markets.


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## NickF (14 May 2016)

petelah said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I am wondering what brokers you use to short sell stocks on the US markets.
> 
> ...




I use FXCM Trading Station and I can trade both ways S&P500. For the fee, they take some pips whenever doing a trade.

Based on the weekly chart (as of May 14, 2016), I expect to go down, maybe to 1900, although the Speculative Sentiment Index shows most people (about 4:1) also believe the same thing. I understand that retail clients tend to be right in trending markets and wrong when there is high volatility (and overall we lose money). 

Nick


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## Jason Rogers (17 May 2016)

NickF said:


> I understand that retail clients tend to be right in trending markets and wrong when there is high volatility (and overall we lose money).
> 
> Nick




Hi Nick,

To clarify, the Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) is used as a contrarian indicator meaning the signal it gives is to do the opposite of the majority. The majority of retail forex traders use a range trading approach -- buying lows and selling highs -- which means they tend to lose in trending markets. That's because the market continues to make new lows (highs) beyond the price level where they bought (sold).


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## NickF (17 May 2016)

Jason Rogers said:


> Hi Nick,
> 
> To clarify, the Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) is used as a contrarian indicator meaning the signal it gives is to do the opposite of the majority. The majority of retail forex traders use a range trading approach -- buying lows and selling highs -- which means they tend to lose in trending markets. That's because the market continues to make new lows (highs) beyond the price level where they bought (sold).




Very interesting, I didn't know that the majority is range trading. 
Thanks for clarifying that.


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## Jason Rogers (18 May 2016)

NickF said:


> Very interesting, I didn't know that the majority is range trading.
> Thanks for clarifying that.




It's my pleasure, Nick. If you'd like more details, you can read this article which includes stats on range trading at different times of day.


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## CanOz (18 May 2016)

NickF said:


> Very interesting, I didn't know that the majority is range trading.
> Thanks for clarifying that.



How's that explain the extreme long position in silver?


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## Jason Rogers (18 May 2016)

CanOz said:


> How's that explain the extreme long position in silver?




Hi CanOz,

The Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) on DailyFX.com which Nick and I were discussing does not include data on silver (XAG/USD), so I don't know how retail traders at FXCM are positioned. What is your source for info on the extreme long position in silver?

Thanks,
Jason


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## CanOz (18 May 2016)

Jason Rogers said:


> Hi CanOz,
> 
> The Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) on DailyFX.com which Nick and I were discussing does not include data on silver (XAG/USD), so I don't know how retail traders at FXCM are positioned. What is your source for info on the extreme long position in silver?
> 
> ...





A couple of places, on the Tweet deck and....



> 12:37TTN Analysis: CFTC Commitment of Traders report: EUR net shorts at multi-month lows; CAD, Silver longs at multi-year highs (update)US Dollar Index: Specs Net: 12,117 v 9,174 prior, COT index 26.0 v 22.8 prior, Open Interest 73 more... (related AUD/USD COTXX EUR/USD GBP/USD GDXJ GLD IAU IEF IYM JJG JPY/USD NZD/USD SLV SPY UNG UNL USD/CAD USD/CHF USD/JPY USD/MXN USO) - Source TradeTheNews.com


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## Jason Rogers (19 May 2016)

CanOz said:


> A couple of places, on the Tweet deck and....




Thanks CanOz 

The Commitments of Traders (COT) reports show the net positioning of two major groups in the futures markets: Non Commercials (AKA Large Speculators shown with a red line below) and Commercials (AKA Hedgers shown with Blue line). There is also some information on Small Speculators (Black line), but they form a very small percentage of the futures markets.







_Chart prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT_​

While Non Commercials have record trend following long positions in gold and silver, this is not a contrarian indicator like SSI. Non Commercials are professional traders (usually hedge funds), and they are trend following. They buy as the market goes up and sell as the market goes down, so they do the opposite of the retail traders reflected in SSI data.


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