TickerScribe

// short selling

Short Selling Journal

A short you already made at your broker deserves somewhere honest to go. A sell can open the position, it runs negative while it's open, a buy-to-cover closes it, and realized P&L runs the direction a short actually runs. Off by default — you turn it on per account.

Log Your First Short

Free · Per-account setting · Nothing changes until you enable it

A Sell That Opens a Position

Without short support, traders enter both sides as an ordinary buy and sell with the meaning inverted. That records the money but tells the journal a lie about the position, and every derived number downstream inherits the lie.

Now the trade type says it outright. Pick Sell Short and the sell opens a position rather than closing one: it runs negative while it's live, a buy-to-cover closes it, and the result improves as the price falls.

The stocks grid labels the direction from there, and a closed short shows the sell as its opening date and the cover as its close.

Entry and Exit in One Form

If you already know both prices — and day traders usually do — record the whole thing at once. The form asks for the cover instead of a sell, then totals the round trip before you save it.

The same “also record the close” toggle works in either direction, so a buy can carry its sell too. Add a stop loss and a take profit while you're there, and Trade Notes derives the R:R and the realized result in R from them.

Your Broker File Brings Them In

Short sales in a recognized broker file arrive as shorts, with no re-entering by hand. Since the setting starts off, the import preview tells you it spotted short sales and asks before turning it on.

Decline, and those rows stay out rather than landing as something they weren't. An import should never quietly reinterpret what your statement says.

Off by Default, Per Account

If you never turn it on, every sell keeps behaving exactly as it did before — a close against shares you hold — and an orphan sell still gets flagged rather than silently opening a short you never made.

Turn it on in Settings, per account, whenever you want it. Run one account that shorts and another that never does, and each behaves the way that account actually trades.

Record the trade you actually made

No credit card required. Turn short selling on for the accounts where you short, and leave the rest exactly as they are.

Start Your Free Journal

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I journal short stock trades?
Yes. A sell can open a position, the position runs negative while you're short, a buy-to-cover closes it, and realized P&L runs the direction a short runs. It's an account-level setting that starts off, so you switch it on for the accounts where you short and nothing changes on the others.
Will turning on short selling change my existing trades?
No. The setting only changes how a sell with no shares behind it is interpreted from that point on. Existing positions, their basis, and their P&L are untouched, and with the setting off a sell you can't back with shares still gets flagged rather than becoming a short.
How is P&L calculated on a short position?
From the sale that opened it to the buy that covered it, so the result improves as the price falls. Your cost basis method still applies when a short is covered in pieces, and commissions and fees come out of the result the same way they do on a long trade.
Do short trades import from my broker?
Yes. Short sales in a recognized broker file arrive as shorts rather than as orphan sells. Because the setting starts off, the import preview tells you it spotted short sales and asks before switching it on. Decline and those rows stay out instead of landing as something they weren't.
Can I record the entry and the cover in one go?
Yes. The stock dialog has an "also record the close" toggle that takes the exit alongside the entry, in either direction — a buy with its sell, or a short sale with its cover. The form totals the round trip before you save it, so day trades don't need two visits.
Does the rest of the journal understand shorts?
Yes. The stocks grid labels the direction with a Short badge, a closed short shows the sell as its opening date and the cover as its close, and every downstream number — your calendar, dashboard, ticker report, and analysis — reads the position the way it actually ran.

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