Senin, 08 Agustus 2011

What Is Short Selling?

By Dennis Jaconi 


Short selling stocks is an investment technique where an investor plans to profit off the declining price of a security. A short seller borrows shares of stock they do not own and sells them out on the open market. When the value of the stocks fall, the short seller can then buy back the borrowed shares at a lower price (or close out their short positions) for a profit. During times of economic uncertainty or bear markets, shorting stocks becomes a popular investment strategy.
How Short Sellers Profit Short sellers are traders and investors that believe the price of a stock or other security will decline. For example, if an investor believes shares of XYZ will fall from their current price of $10 per share, they will short the stock by borrowing shares from a broker to sell the stock. If shares of XYZ fall to $8 per share at a later time, the short seller can close out their position by buying back the cheaper shares. The short sellers profit on the short sale will then end up being $2 per share before fees. When shorting stocks, the profit potential is limited to a 100 percent of the current share prices.
Risks of Short Selling While investors and traders can profit by shorting stocks and other assets, there is significant risk to a short strategy. Using the above example, if share prices of XYZ had increased to $12 per share as opposed to dropping to $8 per share, the short sellers would actually lose $2 per share instead of netting a profit. Given that there is no limit to how high share prices of a stock can go, theoretically, the potential for losses in a short position is also unlimited. This is why it is recommended that investors and traders shorting stocks should use stop orders to limit downside risk.
Trading Volume and Stock Price Often times, trading volume will spike up or down when impending news is about to be released. A rumor about quarterly earnings a few days before the earnings are actually announced can send the average daily trading volume up by 50 percent or even more.
When the average daily trading volume stays level or declines, it can be a sign that there is less interest in the stock from investor and traders. When stock trading volume goes down, the stock loses some liquidity as there are less buyers and sellers to make trades. This can also cause prices to become more volatile.
Stock Trading and Volume When stock trading volume is extremely high, an investor may find it easier to execute larger order sizes of shares at desired prices without dealing with too much volatility. Conversely, if an investor tries to buy or sell large blocks of shares of a stock that has low trading volume, the price to execute the trade and fill the order can fluctuate greatly.
Experienced investors pay close attention to both a stock's trading volume and price movement to see whether a directional shift is sustainable. Knowing how stock trading volume affects a stock's price can significantly enhance an investor's strategies.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6366412

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar