[threedots]

Friction is the difference. Naked shorting removes the need to locate borrow. That need acts to prevent runaway supply expansion. Naked short selling also circumvents the rights of share owners as a class to decide whether to allow synthetic share creation.

[ZephyrBlu]

Fair enough. I assumed that locating shares to borrow would be relatively easy.

[eru]

Typically it is, but for heavily shorted stock, the fees go up.