re: Anyone see this story about CYNK?

In the case of CYNK you'd be borrowing cash. When you short a stock like this, they use non marginable available cash as reserve to guaranty a buy to cover. You sell. Your account gets credited the short sale proceeds. Immediately there is a 100% margin requirement on this security. And it's up the the broker how to apply it. CYNK would be applied in cash at over 100%. You either have the cash to buy to cover, or they lend it to you using your marginable securities as collateral.

IB is about the most sophisticated trading account a retail investor can have. They start portfolio margin at the 100K level. I went in to their margin calculator and figured it up for CYNK. Cash would be borrowed. More so in my e-trade account where they want 10X, but in both cases cash is either made unavailable, or monies lent on the short sale to cover the buy to cover.

Go ahead and get online and go to your broker's margin calculator. Enter a potential short sale on CYNK. See what happens to your net cash/margin balance on a $1,300 short sale for a stock like this.