Then, on June 9, 2020, Anderson came across a tweet from Milton. His truck company, Nikola, had gone public on NASDAQ five days before: “I’ve wanted to say this my whole adult life; $NKLA is now worth more than Ford and [Fiat Chrysler]. Nipping on the heels of GM …”
Given that Ford and GM trade at very low multiple and have not done much in a long time, even decades, this is not that undoable.
I think the survivorship bias with shorting is huge. So many people and firms try and fail. The risks seem to be glossed over by the article. Seeing a few big winners like Nikola one may be under mistaken impression this is a good strategy.
Having a big win is seldom enough to beat the market. If you allocate 5% of your capital for a short and it goes bankrupt, you only increased your total capital by 5%. Making the historical 10% average (including dividends) with an index fund is less risky and more consistent, probably.