Summary
Short selling is a trading strategy in which you speculate on the decline in the price of a stock or other security. If you'd like to learn about the intricacies of short selling real stocks, be sure to check out this article explaining the short selling of stocks.
Some stockbrokers only allow long position in stocks and ETFs. Others allow short positions only via CFDs on a handful of popular individual stocks. Advanced traders prefer brokers that allow the short selling of real stocks (and not just CFDs) on most stock markets their clients have access to.
Fortunately, clients of TD Ameritrade can short real stocks.
Short sale at TD Ameritrade
Short selling of real stocks at TD Ameritrade
The number of stock markets a broker provides access to is a good indication for the number of real stocks available for short selling. Note that brokers may not allow short selling on all stock exchanges, therefore the total number of available stock markets may be lower. Financial regulators sometimes restrict short selling. For example when the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed Europe, six European countries implemented temporary bans on short-selling.
| TD Ameritrade | E*TRADE | Charles Schwab | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock markets (#) | 4 | 5 | 4 |
You need to have a margin account to be able to open short positions. This type of account usually comes with different requirements than regular trading accounts. For example, in the US, you need a minimum deposit of $2,000 for margin trading. To compare the fees associated with the short selling real stocks, let's take a look at a $2,000 short sale trade.
| TD Ameritrade | E*TRADE | Charles Schwab | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US stock | $0.0 | $0.0 | $0.0 |
| UK stock | - | - | - |
| German stock | - | - | - |
If none of the brokers above are a good match for you, we recommend our article listing the best brokers for short selling.
Short sale at TD Ameritrade
Shorting a currency
At TD Ameritrade, you can trade forex pairs, therefore you can go long or short in any of the currency pairs they offer. In the following table you will find our calculation for shorting the most traded currency pairs. This catch-all benchmark includes commissions, spreads and financing costs for all brokers
| TD Ameritrade | E*TRADE | Charles Schwab | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSD benchmark fee | $14.1 | - | - |
| GBPUSD benchmark fee | $7.9 | - | - |
| AUDUSD benchmark fee | $11.2 | - | - |
| EURCHF benchmark fee | $1.7 | - | - |
| EURGBP benchmark fee | $10.1 | - | - |
Short sale at TD Ameritrade
Short selling futures
You can short some of the most traded markets at TD Ameritrade using futures. The table below shows the fees for selling 10 contracts.
| TD Ameritrade | E*TRADE | Charles Schwab | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US micro e-mini stock index futures | $22.5 | $15.0 | $22.5 |
| UK stock index futures | - | - | - |
| German e-mini stock index futures | - | - | - |
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