[jbail]

Can you have a short position in a privately held company? I don't think so, but maybe there's a financial vehicle for that.

[driverdan]

You could have a contract to sell that would function similarly to futures or options. I doubt anyone would take the other side of a contract like this for LivingSocial though.

[graycat]

Right. Sorry about leaving out the last paragraph. But one might try being short on a related public company, say, GroupOn.

[bitcartel]

That boat has long sailed. Anybody who wanted to short Groupon would have done it more than a year ago, when the stock was trading around $20-$25.