Not enough shares to short

[croker]

I was trying to short 3 US stocks earlier and I could only short one. The other 2 gave a message saying there was not enough shares in the underlying market to short.
This is using IG Index.
Is this common? Is it specific to the SB company or broker you use?
All 3 stocks were big gap downs, is it to do with this?
Just curious because I missed out on a couple of good opportunities!

 

[Mr. Charts]

If you trade in the real market using direct access this happens far less often, but still does.
It depends if it's a stock which cannot be shorted or is on a hard to borrow list or if the broker just can't borrow enough to lend you.
Richard

 

[OptionParty]

I was trying to short 3 US stocks earlier and I could only short one. The other 2 gave a message saying there was not enough shares in the underlying market to short.
This is using IG Index.
Is this common? Is it specific to the SB company or broker you use?
All 3 stocks were big gap downs, is it to do with this?
Just curious because I missed out on a couple of good opportunities!

If the stocks have options, you could syntheticaly short, (Long Put+Short Call)
or just buy a Put if the price spread is not to large.
Some stocks have Futures & they can be traded in place of the stock.
Carl