How to Short Stocks at WellsTrade
Key points:
• Investors at WellsTrade can establish both long and short positions.
• WellsTrade has research tools to find overvalued securities.
• WellsTrade's order ticket has a discrete selection for sell short.
If you're looking for a brokerage firm to help you short stocks, WellsTrade is one place worth considering. Here's the lowdown on this often-overlooked broker.
Bearish Trades at Wells Fargo
WellsTrade offers trading in stocks and ETFs; these securities can be purchased or shorted in a self-directed brokerage account. Full-service brokerage accounts through Wells Fargo Advisors can also short securities.
Besides regular ETFs, WellsTrade also offers trading in inverse ETFs. The regular purchase of these funds will result in a gain when normal indexes go down.
Finding Overvalued Securities at WellsTrade
To locate stocks and ETFs that are overbought, log into the Wells website (the broker's mobile app can't be used for this) and hover over the Research tab. In the drop-down menu, click on the link for screeners. On the screeners hub, you'll see two buttons: one for the stock screener and another for the ETF screener. Select the one you want.
With the appropriate screener launched, go through the menu options to specify your criteria. On either search engine, there is a link to generate an advanced screener, which will produce more search variables. The stock screener has a field for consensus rating, which includes both buy and sell ratings. For sell and strong sell, we received 28 results. Apparently, WellsTrade does not have consensus ratings on all stocks in the marketplace.
The ETF search engine doesn't have the ability to search by analysts' consensus at all, although the search wizard can scan by these criteria:
- 3-year market return
- Volume vs 90-day %
- P/E ratio
- R-squared
- ETF type (including inverse)
- And a few more
Stocks and ETFs both have more details on their profiles. Click on a hyperlinked ticker symbol in the search results to pull up the profile. Big stocks will have analyst reports from Wells Fargo Securities; these valuable studies include price targets and are downloadable in pdf format.
Placing a Short Trade
With the targeted security found, it's time to place a trade. This is easy enough to do on either WellsTrade's mobile app or website; both platforms have the same order ticket. WellsTrade is nice enough to give us a discrete selection for Sell Short; look for it in the Action menu. Scroll down and fill in the other necessary parameters, such as order type (market, limit, etc.) and duration (only a day order can be used on a sell-short order).
When you get ready to exit the trade, go back to the order form on either platform. This time, select Buy to Cover in the action menu. Specify the correct number of shares, and you'll be taken out of the trade upon order execution.
Remember that a short trade can only be carried in a margin account, which is available at both WellsTrade and Wells Fargo Advisors.
Charles Schwab as a Replacement
Charles Schwab also offers margin accounts. In these accounts, it's possible to short stocks. Like WellsTrade, Schwab has a website and mobile app with a discrete choice for Sell Short and Buy to Cover. Unlike Wells, Schwab also has a desktop program called thinkorswim. This advanced software will please the most demanding of traders. Although it doesn't have discrete actions for sell short or buy to cover, the regular sell and buy choices can be used for such purposes. thinkorswim is available in mobile and web-browser formats, too. Screeners are embedded in the web and desktop versions.
Schwab's website also has a lot of great short resources, including margin rates for specific short positions and short details on possible trades; examples include number of shares currently shorted and the short interest ratio (in days).
Like WellsTrade, Schwab charges no commissions on short trades of U.S.-listed equities when they are placed online.
Charles Schwab Website
Open Schwab Account
Updated on 3/9/2026.
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