← Back to context

Comment by LegitShady

4 years ago

There are a lot of short sellers who lost money who were desperate for any reason for Tesla stock to fall.

Why is there this attitude that short positions are somehow less moral than long positions? I really don't get it.

  • I think it's because short sellers are seen as pessimists -- on some level, you're betting for a business to fail (or perform poorly), and regardless of whether or not you're right, that means you're betting on people losing jobs, dreams going up in smoke, etc. etc.

    I don't subscribe to this narrative, but it's an easy one to spin when your stock is the one being short sold.

  • Because, to simplify, shorts are hoping for people to fail, while longs are hoping for people to succeed.

    • What both shorts and longs are hoping for are profits on their investment. I doubt either really cares about businesses/people succeeding or failing.

      If you promise a bunch of long holders that a particular short trade is guaranteed to make profit, would they not take it out of concern for people?