# Question about shorting?

**URL:** <https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/question-about-shorting/9714>\
**Category:** Alpaca Trading\
**Created:** [June 9, 2022, 9:41am UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/question-about-shorting/9714 "2022-06-09T09:41:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Prabhu\_P](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/prabhu_p/32/4319_2.png) [@Prabhu\_P](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Prabhu_P)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2022, 9:41am UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/question-about-shorting/9714/1 "2022-06-09T09:41:29Z")

</div>

I created a paper account with 1000$ capital. Tried buying 0.001 BTC using the api and it worked just fine. But then I tried short 0.001 BTC and it gave me an error that shorting isn’t enabled on this account.

Then I tried to reset the capital to 100000$ and tried to sell 0.001 BTC and it gave me an error that fractional shares can’t be shorted. After that I tried to sell 1 BTC and it said BTCUSD can’t be shorted.

I’m confused. So I can’t short anything using paper account? Also if I add only 100$ or 1000$ on live account for just starting out. Will shorting be disabled there…

Can’t find any documentations or information about this. So need some help ☹