[whack]

The liability from short-selling on exchange A is balanced by the buy order on exchange B. The failures you described in LTCM and Bear Sterns bear no relation whatsoever to what the OP is describing. I suggest reading more on long-short arbitrage before disparaging someone's ideas with such condescension.

[thehardsphere]

I am familiar with long-short arbitrage. I'm sure that long-short arbitrage is swell for the hedge funds that use it and have the resources to manage their shorts very carefully and millions of dollars to absorb losses when they screw up.

I think it's completely irresponsible to present that as "without market risk" to an audience that doesn't have similar resources and in some cases doesn't even understand what a short is. I think that presention should be disparaged.

[galacticpony]

You're cleary not familiar with the context at hand. You don't know how exchanges like Bitfinex operate, what the terms of use are, etc.

Everything you said so far is just wrong in context.