Can ETFs be sold short?

In many brokerage accounts that are approved for margin, you can short an ETF the same way you'd short a stock: borrow shares, sell them, and later buy them back to return to the lender. Whether you can short a specific ETF depends on your broker's rules and whether there are shares available to borrow. (finra.org)

The big risk is that losses can be larger than your initial trade size, because the ETF's price can keep rising. You may also face margin calls, and you can be charged borrow fees that vary by ETF and market conditions. (finra.org)

If you're considering shorting to hedge, compare alternatives like options or inverse ETFs. They can be simpler operationally, but they also have their own costs and risks, so it's worth reading the product disclosure and understanding how it behaves.