Its really very simple, on etrade when placing an order, you have 4options : buy,sell,sell short and buy to cover.
When for example stock is at $100 and you believe it will drop you place a 'sell short ' order. If you were successful and stock dropped to $95 that's when you enter 'buy to cover'order .
If you were unlucky and stock hits at $105 you still have the choice to 'buy to cover' at a loss of $5/ share. Basically when placing the short you want to be as high as possible.
Thanks, just logged in to my Scottrade account and saw those 4 options,
I'm general, don't you feel it's riskier to short then to buy?
I somehow have the feeling even if it goes down it will/might still catch back up, but if it rises then there are lesser chances it should fall much,
I might be very wrong but that's my feeling..