Ive been a trader for 15 years. Ive come to understand that shorting is just not worth it and will be responsible for the most significant loses you will experience in your career. The market can remain irrational far longer than you can stay solvent. This specifically means shorting for fundamental reasons rather than technical.
A short play has it's place, but your thesis better be right and you better be on time like a Japanese bullet train. Otherwise puts and the limited premium risk are where it's at.
Shorts have no theoretical stop-gap for losses. Would it be wiser take a long position on a put option?
Puts can make sense but they often are priced very competitively. If the stock doesnt move the time degregation will wipe out the position. So an idea really needs to prove true and move the stock in a big way.
The short sellers could have jumped as soon as Ryan Cohen and co got on the Gamestop board, but no they continued shorting. I have no sympathy for them, be careful of future calls for regulation of retail investors.
The market can stay wrong longer than you can stay out of the asylum.