What is short selling in the stock market?
In Spot Market, commodities, securities, and different currencies are traded to exchange cash for the financial instrument. This exchange is also called "Delivery." Like Spot Market, there is another concept called Short selling or shorting. It means making money by selling the stock believing its price is about to decline and buying it again when the price actually falls.
In the futures market, however, a future considers the exchange means “Delivery” at a future date. Derivatives markets, on the other hand, trade-in forwards, futures, and options contracts instead of the Spot Market.
It is a strategy through which traders profit from the stocks whose price increases or decreases. So, When you borrow a security and sell it on the open market, it is known as short selling. After repaying the first loan, you buy it at a cheaper price and pocket the difference.
Assume that a stock is currently being traded at a stock price of ₹50 per share. So, now you take out a loan for 100 shares and sell them for ₹5,000. If the stock price suddenly drops to ₹25 for each share, then at the exact moment, you are planning to buy 100 shares to replace the old ones you had borrowed and start earning ₹2,500 at the end.
The other names of Spot Market are "Cash Markets" and "physical market."
Shorting in Futures Market
In the futures market, short selling offers liquidity to the experts and assists them in the easy management of portfolio risk in commodities and equities.
Short selling of shares in the futures market helps and allows the expert and experienced traders to hedge their long portfolios and easily offset their occurring losses for a limited time.
Speculative traders are the kind of market participant that prefers shorting. Hedge funds may be involved here, which could be seeking to profit from a market drop. It could also be a business's proprietary trader profiting on a positive trend reversal.
The brilliant thing about futures trading is that you may profit whether the market is rising or falling. On the other hand, Downtrends occur more quickly and are generally more profitable.
Whatever the plan or viewpoint, all that counts is that there be willing buyers and sellers at any given time. They're all looking to put their trades into action. Some people trade with one another, while others compete with one another.
Why should the investors do short selling of shares?
Long-term investors acquire stocks with the expectation that their stock price will increase substantially in the future. And the short-sellers assess the current situation and benefit from decreasing prices.
Advantages :
● Coverage to short and long positions can help reduce overall portfolio volatility and maximize risk-adjusted returns.
● The ability to reduce total market risk by hedging an existing portfolio's long-only exposure.
● Short-selling empowers the portfolio manager to overweight the long-only component of the portfolio by using capital proceeds.
● It improves market liquidity, which might lower stock prices, strengthen bid-ask spreads, and help accelerate price discovery.
Disadvantages :
● When a short seller has little influence over the price of covering their position, they risk having borrowed shares recalled by their broker.
● Lesser liquid equities can be more expensive to purchase, and under turbulent market conditions, the exchange may limit or prohibit short-selling.
● Borrowing stock can be problematic if the market's available stock is restricted or if the names are less liquid.
● Shorting stocks is regarded as extremely risky and volatile, and while it is conceivable for stock to fluctuate and fall down to zero, this is an unusual occurrence. On the back of such incidents, stock values tend to go reverse, and this turnaround can be swift and severe.
● Short squeezes, where rapid and high upward price fluctuates cause short sellers to cover in mass, can push prices against short-sellers.
● While the maximum potential for shorting a stock is 1x, a stock price should be appreciated as there is no limit to what the losses can be.
Risks :
● Following the regulations and guidelines as there are chances that short-selling any sector can be banned
● The seller's biggest responsibility must be to return the security to the owner within the specified time frame, failing which the seller will be investigated by the regulator.
● In the long run, the prices may change or fluctuate rapidly or overtime
● Without analyzing the ups and downs of the company and wrongly making decisions about the company may lead to undesirable consequences
● Borrowing amount and maintaining the minimum balance and paying back at some point in time. Shorting is also known as marginal trading.
● Chances of making a mistake in proper buying and selling time
Conclusion
Now you must know about “what is short selling in the stock market?” and “how does short work in spot & futures market?”, right? The spreads on futures markets are higher, but there are no overcharges or costs. They have a fixed expiration date in the future. Day traders will find Spot Market more appealing, while longer-term traders will find future markets more attractive.
