Orders & trading
What is Short selling?
Also called: Shorting
Hinglish mein padhein: Short selling kya hai?
Short selling means selling a stock you don't own, hoping to buy it back cheaper later. You profit if the price falls.
In the Indian cash market, retail short selling is allowed intraday only; overnight short positions are taken through futures or options.
Losses on a short are theoretically unlimited because a price can keep rising.
Related terms
- Square offTo square off is to close an open position by taking the opposite trade — selling what you bought or buying back what you sold short.
- FuturesA futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a future date. Both sides are obliged to settle.
- Intraday tradingIntraday trading means buying and selling the same stock within one trading day, so no shares are delivered to your demat account.