How can I determine whether a stock is restricted from short sales prior to order entry?

Accounts owned by the same beneficial owner are considered consolidated when determining the ability to sell a stock short. If account A is long 100 shares and account B is short 100 shares, a new order to sell shares in either account A or account B will be considered a short sale, as overall the accounts hold a 0 position. The new sell order would be subject to any applicable locate requirements…

As a US registered broker-dealer, we are subject to Regulation SHO, a collection of US Securities & Exchange Commission rules relating to short-selling of equity securities. Rule 204 of Regulation SHO places certain requirements on clearing brokers in the event that they fail to deliver securities on settlement date in connection with a sale of those securities. This can happen for a variety of commonplace operational reasons, and does not indicate a problem at the clearing broker. In certain circumstances, Rule 204 may require a clearing broker to not permit shorting a security for a certain period of time (unless sufficient shares of that security are pre-borrowed to cover the order marked as a short sale)…

Unless you arrange for a pre-borrow, you will not be subject to stock borrow fees if you open and close the short position within the same trading session. When a short stock position is initiated, a locate is performed so as to make a reasonable determination the shares are available to borrow, however, the actual borrow does not take place until settlement (T+1 for U.S. stocks). If an account closes the short position on the same day opened, the sale and purchase will net and settle on the same settlement date, with no borrowing of shares required…

You cannot simply use cash received from a short sale to meet the margin requirement for a new order in your account. A short stock sale is a margin transaction in which the account holder is borrowing stock rather than cash. While the proceeds from the short sale are credited to the cash balance of the account, these funds must be posted with the lender of the shares as collateral to secure their return. As a result, and in recognition of the fact that the loan transaction is subject to its own financing terms, the cash collateralizing the loan is excluded for the purpose of determining whether a margin loan exists…