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Can you short on Vanguard as of August 2023?

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Adam N.
Updated
Jan 2024
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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 Vanguard can short real stocks.

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Short selling of real stocks at Vanguard

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.

Vanguard available stock markets vs competitors
Stock markets (#)
4 3 5

Data updated on January 26, 2024

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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.

Fees for a $2,000 short sale at Vanguard vs competitors
US stock
$0.0
$0.0
$0.0
UK stock
-
-
-
German stock
-
-
-

Data updated on January 26, 2024

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If none of the brokers above are a good match for you, we recommend our article listing the best brokers for short selling.

As Vanguard does not offer derivatives such as CFDs, forex or futures, you cannot go short on these assets. If you are into derivatives trading, check out our list of the best CFD brokers.

Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes peek into how our experts personally test and evaluate brokers.

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Author of this article

Edith Balázs

Fiscal Fables Storyteller | Forex • Safety • Financial Journalism

I bring 20+ years of experience as a correspondent having worked for Bloomberg, Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal covering macroeconomics, stock, currency and fixed-income markets. I hold a Master's degree in American Studies and Journalism.

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

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