Short Selling at E*TRADE
Bullish trades are only half the battle in the stock market. Bearish trades can also make money, and thanks to E*TRADE’s shorting tools, it’s possible to enter short positions quickly and easily.
Preparing to Short at E*TRADE
In order to place short trades inside a brokerage account at E*TRADE, the account must have
margin trading enabled. At E*TRADE, this task is simple to perform. On the website, click on the Customer Service link that appears in the upper-right corner. On the customer-service hub, find the link to upgrade an account’s margin status. If you have more than one account, you’ll need to select the account to upgrade. Each account that will be placing short trades will need to be upgraded.
Also remember that a standard margin account must have at least
$2,000 in equity.
Locating Assets to Short
E*TRADE’s website has screeners for stocks, exchange-traded funds, and option contracts. Besides short positions on stocks and funds, long puts and short calls are bearish bets.
During our testing of E*TRADE’s screeners, we found them easy to use with lots of search variables. Here are a few choices that can be employed:
- 13 day EMA
- Unusually High Call Volume
- Extended Hours Overnight Trading
- Morningstar Rating
- Market Return Within Category
- P/E Ratio
- 52 Week High
A search can be saved or exported as a spreadsheet file.
Employing a Security’s Profile
ETF and stock profiles at E*TRADE have some information that bearish investors will want to take a look at. For example, E*TRADE provides research reports from
Trefis, along with other third-party research providers. Power E*TRADE also provides
Social Sentiment tools that measure bullish and bearish social-media sentiment using metrics such as Buzz Score and Buzz Volume.
An
Earnings Move Analyzer shows upcoming earnings information and potential price moves. Analyst reports are also available, and many of these include investment ratings or recommendations.
On the Fundamentals tab on a profile, E*TRADE displays the short interest of a stock or ETF as a percentage of the float (the number of shares currently available for trading).
Using the Margin Calculator
E*TRADE provides several margin tools, including a
Margin Analyzer, Margin Calculator, Requirements Search, and Risk Slide. The Margin Calculator can be used to create what-if scenarios and see how hypothetical trades could affect an account’s margin requirements.
Alternative for Short Sellers
For short sellers, Charles Schwab is a good alternative broker. It has several advantages, including a wider
selection of shortable products, strong trading tools, and paper trading.
Learn more...
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Open Schwab Account
How to Short Stocks at E*TRADE
To short a stock or ETF on E*TRADE’s current platforms, enter the security and select
Sell. The Sell action is used both to sell shares you already own and to sell short a security you do not own. A margin-enabled account is required to establish a short position.
Power E*TRADE Web, Power E*TRADE App, E*TRADE Web, E*TRADE App, and the new
Power E*TRADE Pro use the regular Sell action rather than a separate Sell Short button.
After specifying the correct action, the next step is to choose the price type. Market, limit, and stop orders are among the available choices. Then select the appropriate order duration.
Day is not the only duration available for stock orders. Extended-hours short sales have separate order restrictions.
The old E*TRADE Pro desktop platform is being retired and replaced by
Power E*TRADE Pro.
After the Trade
To exit a short position on E*TRADE’s current platforms, select
Buy. The Buy action is used both to purchase a new long position and to buy shares to cover an existing short position.
E*TRADE Reviews
Cost of Shorting at E*TRADE
E*TRADE charges
no special commission for short selling U.S. exchange-listed stocks and ETFs. The standard options contract fee is
$0.65 per contract, reduced to
$0.50 per contract for customers who execute at least 30 stock, ETF, and options trades per quarter.
E*TRADE does not publish a list of hard-to-borrow stocks, although it does charge borrow fees on securities classified as hard to borrow. When you preview a short-sale order for an HTB security, E*TRADE displays an
estimated borrow rate. The actual rate can change based on the availability of the security, and hard-to-borrow fees can continue for as long as the short position remains subject to those charges.
Updated on 9/6/2026.
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