Can I short sell using CNC Zerodha?

No, you cannot short sell using the CNC product code in Zerodha unless you hold the shares in your Demat account.

CNC refers to Cash and Carry used for Equity delivery-based trading. Zerodha does not offer STBT (Sell Today Buy Tomorrow). Thus, if you place a sell order in Zerodha using CNC code without holding the shares in your Demat account, the order gets rejected.

You can short sell using MIS (Margin Intraday square off) product code without holding stock in the Demat account. The MIS code triggers auto square-off by the system if you do not close the intraday position yourself within stipulated timelines. However, when you use the CNC code, the system does not trigger auto-square off and thus you cannot place a sell order first without actually holding the stock.