....Short selling doesn't create new shares. You're borrowing some from someone who owns them already for a price point which you then sell in the expectation t

....Short selling doesn't create new shares. You're borrowing some from someone who owns them already for a price point which you then sell in the expectation the share price will drop, meaning you can buy back the shares you borrowed cheaper, pocketing the difference. Unless you're talking 'naked shorting'. Which is illegal. Though I'm not sure to whose overall benefit. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nakedshorting.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/nakedshorting.asp I make no judgement on it's relative virtue. From an information theoretic point of view, if you audit the holdership of all outstanding isuued shares you will see more orders of involved shares than there are actual sellers that can complete the transaction. These other orders are tracked as FTD's, but may constitute a negative sentiment signal to other actors in the market. Realistically speaking though, it's basically a Stock Market version of a smear/negative advertisement/marketing campaign. Someone burned money to create the appearance of a lack of confidence in a security. The fact it's illegal is arguably a free speech violation. Whether you act on the naked shorting's distortive info is entirely up to you.