Eminitrader, SPECULATING is a dangerous habit. Shorting a stock has unlimited loss potential. And why would you want to short an index? Shorting is proper when you think a company may tank due to managment problems, slower growth than expected, missed earnings estimate, etc. OR it may be proper when you use it with another position as a trading strategy- many professional traders do! As such these kinds of habit are proper for them, who have the RIGHT tools, such as Bloomberg terminal for news feed, Nasdaq Level II for executing trade, Professional Stochastics indicators for reading technical charts, proprieatry software movement indicators etc. Never give your money away to market makers this way- especially when you trade as if you are playing poker in Las Vegas! -JB