Wanna Short a Stock?

Ben Holmes has the market covered: Sundays: This Week in IPOs Tuesdays: This Week's Secondaries Wednesdays: Upcoming Lockup Expirations Fridays: The Quiet Period

Click here for the latest from Ben Holmes.

Here are some lockup expirations for you to chew on this week. Like I've been moaning, there's just nothing going on in the IPO market, and if you're a junkie for this stuff you'll need to find your fix in events like lockup and quiet-period expirations.

I was thinking this morning about shorts and just how many of you actually work that side of the ledger in your trading. Shorting stocks, to most people, is a scary proposition. I think it's safe to say that most investors will go their entire lives and never once get short a stock. This is fine, but if you limit yourself to long positions you may be missing out on a significant amount of potential. Imagine driving all over this beautiful country and never making a left turn. Think of how much scenery you'd be missing.

You're probably wondering why I'm harping on the topic of shorts vs. long positions. It's only because shorting deals with big, crushing lockup expirations is an obvious choice when trading these deals. Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you to just sell the expirations because they're there. You need to do your homework before you go in that direction. What I'm trying to do is to open your eyes to another powerful tool for your trading arsenal.

So what does it take to short a stock? Well, first you need to have a margin account with your broker. That is because shorts cannot be carried as cash positions.

Second, there are minimum equity requirements set forth by the New York Stock Exchange that must be adhered to in order to maintain a short. These requirements differ from house to house, so check with your broker before you trade.

Third, you must be able to borrow the stock you are trying to short. To do this, you or your broker need to make a call to the stock loan department of the firm you are dealing with. They check for offsetting long positions within the firm's control that can be loaned to your account. Stock lending is a twisted business, but understand that you need to be able to borrow the stock in order to short it.

Finally, and this is an absolute, you must declare the short at the time you make the trade. This means that you must tell your broker that your sell order is an order to sell short.

Obviously, I cannot cover every detail of shorting a stock. But if I can get you to think about the process and how you might apply it to your trading style, then it's worth my time to bring it up.

Whatever you do -- however you play the game -- know the rules before you swing the bat.

Here's this week's list:

(TheStreet.com's Ben Holmes, who heads TSC's ipoPros.com subsidiary, keeps a close eye on lockup expirations every week. For more on lockups and why they matter, check out his primer on the subject. A more recent take on lockups appears here .)

Lockup End	Deal Name	Symbol	Lead Underwriter
9/9/00	DIGITAS	(DTAS:Nasdaq)	Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
9/9/00	INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES	(IFX:NYSE)	Goldman Sachs
9/9/00	RADVISION	(RVSN:Nasdaq)	Lehman Brothers
9/10/00	FAIRMARKET	(FAIM:Nasdaq)	Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
9/10/00	LASTMINUTE.COM	(LMIN:Nasdaq)	Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
9/11/00	IMPROVENET	(IMPV:Nasdaq)	CS First Boston
9/11/00	LOUDEYE TECHNOLOGIES	(LOUD:Nasdaq)	Robertson Stephens
9/12/00	UNIVERSAL ACCESS	(UAXS:Nasdaq)	Goldman Sachs
9/13/00	INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS	(IISX:Nasdaq)	Robertson Stephens
9/13/00	NETPLIANCE	(NPLI:Nasdaq)	Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette
9/13/00	UPROAR	(UPRO:Nasdaq)	Salomon Smith Barney
9/16/00	SNOWBALL.COM	(SNOW:Nasdaq)	Goldman Sachs
9/17/00	CALDERA SYSTEMS	(CALD:Nasdaq)	Robertson Stephens
9/18/00	ACLARA BIOSCIENCES	(ACLA:Nasdaq)	Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
9/18/00	INSILICON	(INSN:Nasdaq)	Robertson Stephens
9/18/00	PARTSBASE.COM	(PRTS:Nasdaq)	Roth Capital Partners
9/19/00	BLAZE SOFTWARE	(BLZE:Nasdaq)	Robertson Stephens
9/19/00	EMACHINES	(EEEE:Nasdaq)	CS First Boston
9/19/00	VIASYSTEMS GROUP	(VG:NYSE)	Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
9/20/00	EPRISE	(EPRS:Nasdaq)	Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown
9/20/00	ETINUUM	(ETIN:Nasdaq)	Chase H&Q
9/20/00	INTERMUNE PHARMACEUTICALS	(ITMN:Nasdaq)	Warburg Dillon Read
Source ipoPros.com

Click on www.ipopros.com for your free 2 week trial.

---

Ben Holmes is the founder of ipoPros.com, a Boulder, Colo.-based research boutique (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com) specializing in the analysis of equity syndicate offerings. This column is not meant as investment advice; it is instead meant to provide insight into the methods of new and secondary offerings. Neither Holmes nor his firm has entered indications of interest in any of the companies discussed in this column. Holmes' This Week in IPOs column appears Sundays, This Week's Secondaries appears Tuesdays, Upcoming Lockup Expirations appears Wednesdays and The Quiet Period appears on Fridays. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Holmes appreciates your feedback at [e-mail].