Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by rootusrootus on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:01PM
(#18016985)
Not individually, but if enough people short it, then that becomes a signal to other investors that maybe there's something they don't know about, which will push the price down.
Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by lamontcg on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @02:07PM
(#18017677)
And other investors see that short interest piling into an otherwise healthy (hypothetical) stock and they buy in anticipation of a short squeeze. And when the stock pops due to good news, those shorts become rocket fuel for the stock going up.
No single action in the stock market happens in a vacuum, and longs will absolutely react to what the shorts are doing. And a high short interest is often viewed as a contrarian indicator that dumb short money has piled into the stock and that its actually due for a pop. You often see that at bottoms in the stock.
Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by qaq on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:14PM
(#18017130)
Sure it does short 20% of FB float it will sure move
Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by hcknwscommenter on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:52PM
(#18019014)
I'm not so sure. What direction will it "sure move" if you short 20% of FB float? You have to borrow a stock to short it from someone, so the stock that you short is not actually sold just lent.
Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by imcoconut on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @06:16PM
(#18019707)
The price would definitely move down if you sold 20% of facebook's float. The market doesn't care that you borrowed and are the one selling (as opposed to the party you borrowed it from selling them), all that matters is that 20% of the shares are being sold.
Re:Tesla Faces U.S. Criminal Probe Over Musk Statements
by zwerdlds on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:55PM
(#18021315)
Hedge funds, which can turn huge sums into market swings often use this technique to drop the price, creating additional drops from panic sell offs, allowing them to make a margin on it from the bottom.
Not on their own they don't. You can go and short Facebook right now and it won't move the price at all.