Scottrade stocks available to short

As a fairly novice investor with some good profitable decisions behind me, I've spent the last few years getting "broken in" with trading.

I'm self-educated in finance. Don't read this for investment advice!

Scottrade Review - Online Stock Trading - yfyrurusus.web.fc2.com

When I liquidated my more traditional investments -- precious metal allocation certificates and government bonds -- I initially transferred a large fraction of the assets to my newly opened Scottrade account. I had convinced myself I had a feel for price movements in silver and palladium, so I had mostly been interested in swing trading using leveraged ETFs. I was still interested in precious metals, but I had grown distrustful of my custodian's stewardship of my holdings, and disdainful of their doublespeak as to the mechanics of cashing out.

Those suspicions were partially corroborated, but that's another story. So I figured that actively managing my short term investments would be a lucrative endeavor.

Problem was, I didn't want to day trade, and so most of the leveraged instruments I used especially AGQ and ZSL punished me for playing mid-term swings. I should have gone for slower profit taking using tickers like SLV itself only worth trading, in my opinion but it was a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

I had also convinced myself that I could smell the BS surrounding overhyped technologies. I learned how short selling worked, and was pleased to learn that Scottrade would let me short once I set up margin.

So I did that. But then something bad happened. The I got a phone call from Scottrade: This process repeated with other shorts. Actually, it's more of a rule than an exception, at least with non-bluechip stocks. I can find at least four "buyin" notices in my inbox.

The only non-bluechip Scottrade seems able to lend me shares while the stock rallies is CRM. That's funny to me, considering the sources of CRM's current 'valuation.

Short Selling at Scottrade | Scottrade

I've asked everyone I could why this happens to me, and the usual answer is, "it shouldn't. But I definitely got burned shorting with Scottrade, and not because of bad decisions but because of bad management.

So "caveat emptor" has its short-selling parallel, at least when your broker is Scottrade. I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

How do I short Stock using Scottrade? | Yahoo Answers

I'm still with Scottrade, and growing increasingly disgruntled -- they won't let me sell puts! Blog posts are not selected, edited or screened by Seeking Alpha editors. Misadventures Of Short Positions With Scottrade Oct.