4 ms·
In what way could short selling not generally hurt others? Any gain a short seller makes is a lost opportunity by the holder.
by thethirdone 4y ago
In what way could short selling not generally hurt others? Any gain a short seller makes is a lost opportunity by the holder.
- FranksTV 4y agoThere needs to be a way to create downward pressure on the price of an equity.
- renox 4y ago?? If there is no buyer for a given price then the seller will have to reduce his price, no need to have this dubious mechanism.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoThe party loaning the security to the short seller makes a profit too as part of the loan. The only person potentially going to lose money is the short seller. The person loaning the security might end up getting the security back once it’s fallen a lot, or it might have risen, but they don’t really take any outrageous risk. Just the person who borrowed and sold takes the potential losses. What is dubious about this mechanism? It seems fairly straight forward and short selling doesn’t even depress the price any more than someone simply selling it to the market. In fact since they have to buy it back later they first create sell pressure down then buy pressure up later.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoAll securities trading is a zero sum game. For every “winner” there are “losers.” By hurt I mean, essentially, some form of fraud or similar activity that puts others at risk without their understanding the risks, or where the outcome is always a loss for the counterparties.