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People are confusing the options trading that's going on as part of this with the shorting. Options do have expiration dates, but shorts just charge interest. T
by svachalek 6y ago
People are confusing the options trading that's going on as part of this with the shorting. Options do have expiration dates, but shorts just charge interest. The thing is if you own a stock and it goes down, worst case is you lose 100% of your money. If you short a stock and it doubles, you've lost 100% but there's no barrier here, the loss could keep going up to 200% or more. If you can't pay it back, the broker is on the hook for this money and therefore they have the power to actually force you to close the short position. You don't control the timing on that. It's the kind of situation where people start jumping out of windows on Wall St.