Soulcages, you can short US equities even with IB. But IB doesn't have great borrows on HTB stocks ( hard to borrow, generally penny stocks). I am surprised that IB rep gave that info to you. Its because I use IB to short in US markets.( OZ resident,opened account through IB Australia)
There are other US brokers like Centrepoint Securities, TradeZero Inc ,SpeedTrader which will allow you to short any stock on US markets. ( they have good borrows ). I am currently using TradeZero. Today I just started looking into how to short on ASX listed Penny stocks. Tmrw will speak to few CFD providers as many have mentioned in this thread. Good Luck
