In the same way that prices can rise, they can also fall. In times of extreme volatility, traders can potentially profit in a down market or protect the downside of existing investments in their portfolio by hedging. Short-selling allows you to trade on a market even when the market is falling.
Short-selling is the practice of selling an asset that you don’t actually own, in the hope that the price will decline and you can buy it back at a lower level in the future. You can then keep the difference between the price at which you sold the asset and the lower price you bought it back at.
At IG, you can short-sell CFDs just as you can buy them. When opening a trade, you simply click 'sell' instead of 'buy' if you are expecting an underlying security to fall.
