re: I have a really stupid and dumb (or both) question about shorting a stock...

It depends on what trading platform you use.

Schwab has a transaction menu on its trading platform that includes "Buy, Sell, Short." If you click on 'short' and enter the number of shares, the price per share you want to short sell at and company symbol and then submit the order, Schwab handles the rest.

To close out the short position you have to "buy" the stock. Newcomers to shorting often get confused and think they have to sell their position. But by shorting, you have already 'sold' the shares, even though you don't own them.

You have to have certain margin or cash requirements to enter a short order.

And you can only short stocks in a taxable account, not an IRA.

Anything else?