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by __derek__ 3594 days ago
I wonder whether you saw the article last week about how difficult it is to actually short Uber.[1]

[1]: http://qz.com/707947/investors-have-placed-a-one-way-bet-on-...

2 comments

This is depressingly common. I occasionally run across a company which I'm sure will have a lower stock price in a year. The numbers don't add up, the business plan is just unworkable, or it fails the "this tiny company has a higher valuation than Walmart" test.

But about nine out of ten times I can't get shares to short, or my broker can get shares from another brokerage for a large minimum lot and even larger fee. I can understand some smaller companies don't have a large float, but it seems like you should be able to get shares for companies like Uber and Tesla.

Isnt tesla one of the most shorted companies currently? Cant be too hard to short it
I'm not an expert on this stuff, but my understanding is when lots of people sell short it's harder to do the same. It doesn't really make sense to me, since I think when you short a stock those shares get sold, so they're going somewhere.
Ah thanks, I actually hadn't seen that. Maybe in the future these predictions can be handled by some sort of betting market.
There are always proposition bets but they are generally illegal in most, if not all, markets.
Ideally that would happen in the stock market, of course.