If you short sell how can you be sure you'll be able to return the stock to whom it was borrowed?

Question

If something goes, wrong, you forget to return it, or you for whatever reason cannot buy back the stock after it was short sold to sell it back to whoever you borrowed it from what can happen?

Answer 1

Normally you cannot float a short except on Futures trading. You will have to close the same day.

If the prices drop you can cover it easily.

Answer 2

When you sell short you must maintain a certain amount of cash in your account. This is called the "margin requirement". It is initially 50% of the value of the stock, but may later vary between 25% and 50% depending on the brokerage. If the stock goes up and your cash goes below the margin requirement, you will get a "margin call". A margin call means that if you do not immediately provide more cash to meet the margin requirement, the brokerage will cover your position (buy back the shares at a loss for you). If the price moves quickly enough, they may even cover your position without notifying you beforehand.

Answer 3

Well, with Zecco you can't really forget you are shorting it because whenever you look at it, it will tell you.  With Zecco, you are borrowing from their inventory.