How to short in alpacca

Alpaca Products Discussion
1

Hi doesnot necessarily have to be coded but even just using regular short selling doesnot seem to work. How do i set this up?
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2

You can’t short, need to have 2K + to short

In order to trade on margin or sell short, you must have $2,000 or more account equity. Accounts with less than $2,000 will not have access to these features and will be restricted to 1x buying power.

3

hi igor, i do have more than 2000 in my account. do i need to set it up first?

4

Are you using an api? Whats the output of GET /v2/account?

You should get something similar:
{
“account_blocked”: False,
“account_number”: “010203ABCD”,
“buying_power”: “262113.632”,
“cash”: “-23140.2”,
“created_at”: “2019-06-12T22:47:07.99658Z”,
“currency”: “USD”,
"daytrade_count": 0,
“daytrading_buying_power”: “262113.632”,
“equity”: “103820.56”,
“id”: “e6fe16f3-64a4-4921-8928-cadf02f92f98”,
“initial_margin”: “63480.38”,
“last_equity”: “103529.24”,
“last_maintenance_margin”: “38000.832”,
“long_market_value”: “126960.76”,
“maintenance_margin”: “38088.228”,
"multiplier": “4”,
“pattern_day_trader”: False,
“portfolio_value”: “103820.56”,
“regt_buying_power”: “80680.36”,
"short_market_value": “0”,
"shorting_enabled": True,
“sma”: “0”,
"status": “ACTIVE”,
“trade_suspended_by_user”: False,
"trading_blocked": False,
“transfers_blocked”: False
}

6

I figured it out. It is under setting on the right top corner. Thank you.

7

You mean to enable it by user?

8

Hi yes, i had to enable on the app.alpacca.markets

9

You can also do it via the API: