can you sell an etf short?

Answer 1

Absolutely. And there is no "short-sale rule" like there is for stocks, where you must sell short on an up-tick. The conditions are the same for an ETF, whether selling short, or going long.

But if you are short during the dividend payount, you may have to make this payout out of your own pocket.

Also, there are no "odd lots" like there are for stocks. You can buy or sell 1 or 99 or 132, doesn't matter.

Same for sector ETF's as for the indexes. Buy the strong sectors and sell the weak ones.

Answer 2

Yes. It will, as always, depend upon if your broker has shares available to let you borrow (their site will likely say so if you try to sell something short and they don't have any). I've sold QQQQ short quite often. Even the Gold ETF GLD I've sold short, though I wish I hadn't at the time ...!