How do you profit from a bust?

[spino1i]

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Off-topic. When you short, do you actually receive the money for the short at the time of opening it? If so, can you use those proceeds to buy other stocks? For example, could I short 100 shares of GOOG at ~$650 then take the $65,000 and buy 900 shares of CAT?

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if you find the right brokerage yes. Zecco so far has been letting me do this.

Also if your portfolio is over 1 mm this is common to do, but for small fries (below 1 mm) most brokerages dont offer this.