Short Selling Is Tough Business
Matt Levine has another article that does a great job of summing up short sellers [1] (see &quot;Short selling, etc.&quot;).<p>I used to work on a product that tracked short sellers, so I had to read a lot of press releases and interviews and etc. from short sellers. I definitely agree with Matt Levine&#x27;s summary here:<p>&gt; &quot;One thing I will say for short sellers is that many of them really do believe their (standard, correct) claims about their role in financial markets: that they make markets more efficient, deflate bubbles, root out fraud and delusion, and generally make the world better with their unpopular and negative activity. They see it as a noble but misunderstood calling.&quot;<p>And in quite a few cases, they&#x27;re not wrong - I mean, Jim Chanos is probably most well-known for his short position in Enron. Say what you want about Bill Ackman, but Herbalife <i>does kinda seem like a pyramid scheme</i>.<p>It&#x27;s really interesting, and while the financial benefits are obviously there it does seem like quite a few of them really just enjoy calling bullshit and exposing people&#x2F;corporations for it. I don&#x27;t doubt they would probably also do really well as investigative journalists.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;view&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2018-09-12&#x2F;banks-do-the-trades-they-want-to-do" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&#x2F;view&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2018-09-12&#x2F;banks-do-...</a>