I want to short sell company XYZ which is priced 49dollar but broker says notenough shares forshort sale why?

Question

Initial margin schedule is 50% of marginable security with 2000 minimum markgin equity (my current equity 8,000)

Maintenance margin for security greater than 5.01 dollar the greater of 50% or 5 dollar per share.

Answer 1

Shorting is simply borrowing shares (done by your broker) to sell stock you don't own.  There are shares available for shorting. There are shares that are not.  Your Broker should have a list of easy to borrow shares. When requested... the better brokers will find the shares for you.

Typical Brokers that will find shares for you are;

ThinkOrSwim

TradeStation

InteractiveBrokers

etc..... (in other words... brokers that cater to the professioal or semi professional trader).

Shorting is a very dangerous game.... Certainly best for the very experianced trader. You've gotten into selling short & you don't understand the most basic part of it..... very dangerous.

The only way to be successful in trading is constantly reading books on trading. Even the "best" do so regularly.  It's always a moving target.

Answer 2

This has nothing to do with your account.  For you to short a stock, the broker must be able to find a real share for you to sell (it is the law so that there is not more stock shorted than owned).  The broker probably doesn't have any shares for you to borrow.

Answer 3

Your broker has to be able to borrow the shares from someone so you can sell them short.  If they're hard to borrow (common with stocks that are heavily shorted) then you can't sell it short.  It sounds like there aren't enough shares available to borrow.  The amount of margin is irrelevant.