Very basic beginner question

couponjohn said: "If I have a account sat with scottrade and in it I have a total of 20k in it . The next day I Short Sell a stock at say $10 @ 1000 shares total of 10 k then that same day say 2 hours later rebuy the stock at 9 @ 1000 making me 1k .. My question is do I have to pay interest on the use of the stock even though I funded it with my money and if I do what determines the rate I have to pay?"

AlfredSokol said: "Hi Couponjohn, That will depend on Scottrade's policies. I'm pretty sure you'll pay margin for the whole amount though."

InvestorMan said: "[SIZE=3][FONT=Verdana]When you sell a stock short, as you probably know, you are selling a stock you don't actually own, so you have to borrow these shares in order to sell them. Your brokerage firms will lend you these shares so you can complete the transaction, but you must have enough money in your account to cover the cost of these shares should you have to buy them back. You can't borrow money to sell short. For example, you couldn't short sell $30,000 worth of a stock if you only have $20,000 in the account. You're absolutely right when you say that you are the one funding the transaction, so you shouldn't have to pay a "margin" fee to sell short. Margin doesn't have anything to do with this kind of transaction. However, your broker may charge a higher transaction fee for a short sell than they would for a buy, or they may charge you a "service" charge for their generously lending you the stock to sell short. In reality, it doesn't cost your broker anything to "lend" you the stock and your firm doesn't really have to charge you a service fee.[/FONT][/SIZE]"