Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (2024)

Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (1)

Trading Education Guides Penny Stocks

  • By Lucien Bechard
  • Updated February 15, 2024

5 min read

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Shorting penny stocks is a very popular trading strategy with small-cap stocks. It allows you to make money as the price of a stock falls. This is why there’s so much volatility with low floaters at the open. It’s the battle between the longs and shorts, creating a tug of war. The bulls push the price up, and the bears wait on the other end to short the reversals back down to support levels and then cover their positions. It’s important to have a good shorting broker like SpeedTrader, Interactive Brokers, or Centerpoint to get you shares to borrow.

Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (3)

Day Trading Course

In this course, you’ll learn how to read day trading charts, premarket preparation, gauge buy and sell zones, scan for penny stocks to trade, and prepare for live day trading action.

Table of Contents

  • What Does Shorting Penny Stocks Mean?
    • Broker Is Important
    • Beware of the Pumper
  • Is It Illegal to Short Sell Penny Stocks?
    • The Patterns
    • Technical Indicators
    • Final Thoughts: Shorting Penny Stocks

What Does Shorting Penny Stocks Mean?

You can go long in penny stocks and shorting penny stocks—that way, you can make money on the pump and the dump. When people think of penny stocks, they think of the ones that are cheaper than pennies.However, if a stock is under $5, it’s considered a penny stock.

Volatility is very important when trading any stock. That makes the price movement head up and down. Without volatility, you can’t trade successfully or quickly.

Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (4)

Broker Is Important

When shorting penny stocks, having a broker that can find shares is necessary. Many brokers don’t allow shorting of stocks under $5. Hence, it is important to have a broker that does this.

You’re betting a stock will go down. When you go to short with your broker, they have to have customers who own the stock you want to short. If there isn’t a customer that owns those shares, you won’t be able to short it.

Beware of the Pumper

Penny stocks are full of pumpers. Always be careful when someone is promising big things. There’s always a possibility they’re correct, but nine times out of 10, they’re not.

They’re usually someone whose position isn’t doing well, so they need your help to get out. They promise riches, and once you’re in, they get out. They are usually leaving you to hold the bag.

Never take someone at their word. Do your research. Look at the news, the charts, and the patterns. They don’t lie. When shorting penny stocks, you can take advantage of the dump you know is coming.

That’s why charts and patterns are the foundation of trading. They save you from the manipulation of pumpers and allow you to capitalize on moves.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Do your due diligence. It’ll save your brokerage account.

COURSE
Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (5) Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (6) Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (7)
DESCRIPTION Learn how to read penny stock charts, premarket preparation, target buy and sell zones, scan for stocks to trade, and get ready for live day trading action
Learn how to buy and sell options, assignment options, implement vertical spreads, and the most popular strategies, and prepare for live options trading How to read futures charts, margin requirements, learn the COT report, indicators, and the most popular trading strategies, and prepare for live futures trading
INCLUDED Daily watch lists • Trade rooms • Trading scanners • Discord • Live streaming
Day Trading >
Daily watch lists • Trade rooms • Options scanners • Discord • Live streaming
Options >
Futures target levels • Trade rooms • Real time teaching • Discord • Live streaming
Futures >

Is It Illegal to Short Sell Penny Stocks?

Shorting penny stocks is not illegal. It’s a way to make money when a stock’s prices are declining, but borrowing shares from a broker and covering your position when the price starts to move back up.

The Patterns

Candlesticks patterns are going to be your saving grace when shorting penny stocks. It’s that way whether you’re day trading or swing trading.

Head and shoulders patterns are popular especially with penny stocks. These are perfect patterns for shorting penny stocks. The small two- and three-candlestick patterns are also going to help.

Tweezer top patterns and shooting star patterns tell you of impending short plays. There are many more where that came from, too.

Technical Indicators

Technical indicators are also helpful but are nothing without candlesticks and patterns. You need both to work together. Shorting penny stocks means you’ll probably be in and out pretty quickly.

You can couple patterns and indicators, such as moving average lines. The VWAP trading strategy is popular as it doubles as support and resistance.

If a candlestick breaks below VWAP and can’t get above it, it’s a key resistance level. You can short the price down. You hear more often then not buy at support sell at resistance.

Shorting penny stocks is the opposite. You want to sell at resistance and buy at support.Candlesticks patternsand technical indicators all help with that.

Final Thoughts: Shorting Penny Stocks

Shorting is risky. That’s why knowing patterns is so important. Never listen to other people telling you when to buy and sell. Do your research and make your own informed trading decisions.

It’s going to take effort and time. You’ll need to study and practice to get comfortable shorting penny stocks.

If you need more help, take our day trading course.

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Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (18)

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Shorting Penny Stocks: Overview, How to Do It, and Examples (2024)

FAQs

How do you short penny stocks? ›

INFOGRAPHIC: How to short penny stocks
  1. Identify the stock.
  2. Borrow the stock.
  3. Sell the stock.
  4. Wait for stock prices to decline.
  5. Buy back the stock at a discount price.
  6. Return the stock.

How does shorting a stock work example? ›

For example, let's say a stock is trading at $50 a share. You borrow 100 shares and sell them for $5,000. The price subsequently declines to $25 a share, at which point you purchase 100 shares to replace those you borrowed, netting $2,500.

How to trade penny stocks for beginners? ›

How to trade penny stocks
  1. Open a live trading account. ...
  2. Fund your account. ...
  3. Research to find the right stocks for you. ...
  4. Decide if you want to buy or sell. ...
  5. Manage your risk. ...
  6. Determine your position size and place the trade. ...
  7. Monitor your position and close your trade.

What is shorting with example? ›

Example: If a trader purchases 100 shares of X Ltd at Rs 100 each and later on the price of each share falls to Rs 80, then the trader can book profits by short covering them. By short covering at Rs80 each, the trader would be able to earn profit of 20x100= Rs 2000.

How do you short a stock for beginners? ›

The traditional method of shorting stocks involves borrowing shares from someone who already owns them and selling them at the current market price – if there is a fall in the market price, the investor can buy back the shares at a lower price, and profit from the change in value.

Why can't I short penny stocks? ›

One of the biggest drawbacks to shorting penny stocks is there has to be shares available to short, meaning it can't be hard-to-borrow (HTB). Since most people do not hold penny stocks long term in a margin account, there may not always be shares to borrow and if there is it could be expensive to borrow them.

How does shorting work for dummies? ›

Short selling is—in short—when you bet against a stock. You first borrow shares of stock from a lender, sell the borrowed stock, and then buy back the shares at a lower price assuming your speculation is correct. You then pocket the difference between the sale of the borrowed shares and the repurchase at a lower price.

What happens if you short a stock and it goes to zero? ›

If the shares you shorted become worthless, you don't need to buy them back and will have made a 100% profit. Congratulations!

Who pays when you short a stock? ›

The short seller borrows those shares from an existing long and pays interest to the lender. This process is often facilitated behind the scenes by a broker. If a small amount of shares are available for shorting, then the interest costs to sell short will be higher.

What is the most successful penny stock? ›

Penny Stocks
Company NameLTPMarket Cap (in Cr)
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd284.159235.42
Bank of Maharashtra68.448436.6
Raymond Ltd.2227.614829.96
SAL Steel19.9169.09
1 more row

What are the hottest penny stocks right now? ›

Most Active Penny Stocks
  • GGB3.800.19% Gerdau S.A.
  • NYCB3.530.16% New York Community Bancorp, Inc.
  • PLUG2.740.29% Plug Power Inc.
  • DNA0.960.09% Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc.
  • TLRY2.100.08% Tilray Brands, Inc.
  • OPEN2.210.18% Opendoor Technologies Inc.
  • PTON3.430.29% Peloton Interactive, Inc.
  • AMC3.300.17%

What are the rules for trading penny stocks? ›

Some of these rules and regulations include:
  • Commission Disclosure: The broker-dealer must disclose the commission they will receive for executing a trade.
  • Quote Confirmation and Disclosure: The broker-dealer must confirm the quoted price of a penny stock with the customer before executing the trade.

What is an example of a short selling strategy? ›

Let's say that an investor believes that a company's shares, which are currently trading at $100 per share, will decline. To short the company's stock, the investor borrows 100 shares from a brokerage and sells those shares in the market, which are technically not owned by the firm.

How do I know when to short a stock? ›

Other techniques that can tell an investor when it's time to short include tracking seasonal factors such as tax-loss selling, insider moves, declining fundamentals, and sector weakness.

What happens if you short a stock and it goes up? ›

Short selling carries significant risks. There is no limit to how high the price of the security can go. If the price of the security rises, the investor must buy it back at a higher price than it was sold for, resulting in a loss.

Can I short a stock under $1? ›

The $2.50 Rule

It basically means if you short a stock trading under $1, it doesn't matter how much each share is — you still have to put up $2.50 per share of buying power. That can eat up a lot of capital. I mean, why would a short seller put up $2.50 in buying power to short a 40-cent stock down to what …

Can you short stocks under $5? ›

However, one can easily short sell stocks that trade under $5 since the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have not set any rules that bar people from engaging in this type of activity.

Can you short penny stocks on Robinhood? ›

If you recall, shorting something means to sell it first, and buy it back later, hopefully for less than you sold it for. It can be done with stocks (just, not at Robinhood Financial) or options (yes, at Robinhood Financial, but with restrictions).

How do you bet short on stocks? ›

An investor borrows a stock, sells it, and then buys the stock back to return it to the lender. Short sellers are wagering that the stock they're shorting will drop in price. If this happens, they will get it back at a lower price and return it to the lender.

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