Why can't I short with an IRA investment account?

I have been told that I can't short or write uncovered calls. Scottrade.

Because you cannot borrow on an IRA, and shorts require margin which is borrowing.

You cannot borrow, because you cannot pay enough into the account in case of a margin call when your shorts go bad. IRAs have limits on how much you can deposit in them annually, and there is no limit to the amount a stock can go up.

You can sell covered calls though. I do this at Scottrade in my IRA to reduce my risk and increase my gains.

Because you can't trade on margin in an IRA. (Shorts are only allowed in a margin account.)

An IRA is supposed to be a conservative, long term, form of savings, therefore, the law bars a whole list of high risk, speculative activities. You also can't use the IRA as collateral for a loan, which means no margin account. It's not up to Scottrade. It's the law for all brokers.

Like said, you can only short in margin accounts which IRA's are not allowed to be. Second, when shorting you can lose more than your investment. If that turns out to be the case combined with the fact that there are limits to how much you can invest per year, you may not be able to pay off a loss. But while you cannot short individual stocks or mutual funds you can buy mutual funds which do short stocks. Here's a place to start looking.
http://www.bearmarketcentral.com/mutualf...