Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
Showing 2 terms
Selling a security you do not own, in the expectation of buying it back at a lower price.
Permitted here for every class of investor, but every sale must be capable of delivery. That single requirement is why a bearish view with a three-week horizon cannot simply be held in the cash market, and why holding a short is structurally more awkward than holding a long.
Selling shares that have neither been borrowed nor arranged to be borrowed before the sale.
Not permitted in India, and the prohibition shapes everything else about shorting here. An intraday short that cannot be squared off — a stock locked at its upper circuit, say — becomes a short delivery and is closed out at a deliberately penal price.