Is there any particular signal you guys use when deciding to short sell?
Like Big Bopper, I don't short sell. My trading accounts are standard ones too. They don't even let me short sell.
But as for advice in this crazy market it's tough to short anything because fundamentals are tossed out the window. It's mostly about momentum.
The only advice I'd suggest that does seem true is whenever some crazy Citron or Hindenburg announces one of their "This company sucks and is a scam. Short it", the company will often drop 10% that day. And will almost always trickle down a bit more the rest of the week.
From there, it'll stabilize and then either creep lower or rebound.
Assuming you can't right away short on day one riding the stock down 10%, I'd say there's still opportunity to ride the downtrend for a few more days and then decide to get out (scam claims are BS) or keep holding (scam claims are legit and the upward momentum is totally shattered going forward).
I've had stocks that got hit with these claims, and none of them were true. They all rebounded. But they never rebounded in a big way the day after. The stocks always languished for a week before rebounding.
These short selling investment companies sound legit, but almost always are bullshitting with fake info, fake photos and after it's debunked they quietly go away.
I'll give you an example. During the weed craze, I had Aphria. Made good money on it around $10,000. But it roller coastered as MJ stocks were volatile and about 2 years ago, Hindenburg claimed Aphria was BS and showed photos.
The photos were BS and were taken from pieces of land BESIDE Aphria's property. They claimed the empty land was theirs and they set up fake offices. Hindenburg came out with a big story and claimed "90% of our claims are true" or some garbage.
After their claims were BS, Aphria rebounded. And Hindenburg didn't even have the guts to announce they rescind their views. They made their money. The only reason people knew they quietly bailed is because someone on Twitter asked them about it and they responded in a tweet they decided Aphria's management is now ok. That was 2 weeks after their claim. And unless you saw that tweet, you'd never even know they already bailed shorting it.
So from a fancy powerpoint "these fields are empty and there's no office" to "management is ok" in two weeks shows what scum these short selling companies are. But you can't fight downward momentum if you are going long. So if you want to short sell and catch it at the right time, you can ride the wave down and bank money. But be sure to get out before it rebounds.
Watch out as shorting stocks can lead to (in theory) unlimited compounding losses. While going long the traditional way caps your loss at whatever you put into it assuming the stock craters to $0.
In the past year or two, if you shorted any company involved with vaccines, EV, or cloud servers you'd be a dead duck. Most of these companies have probably doubled or tripled. So be careful.
