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Comment by Dig1t | Hacker News Reader

You should short the stock. If you think it’s a big scam and not actually worth being in the top 500 US companies, you could make a lot of money.

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You're ignoring the fact that timing has a lot to do with a short position. There was a long period where shorting Enron would've ruined you, and a short period when it'd make you rich.

That's their point. If it's not worth shorting you might as well buy it now, at least you'll make money.

not everyone responds to a perceived social ill by thinking "maybe I should gamble"

Shorting is the best mechanism for exposing scams and frauds in public markets, in fact that’s really the only reason it exists.

It’s an incentive for people to root out corruption and graft. If you truly believe that SpaceX is a big scam and it’s not actually worth enough to be in the S&P 500, then taking a short position not only will net you a bundle of cash, it will do the public a service by helping to expose a fraud and prevent future companies from doing the same thing.

Again, not everyone responds to a perceived social ill by gambling. Timing a short is still gambling.

> Shorting is the best mechanism for exposing scams and frauds in public markets

That societal benefit is mostly worthless to investors.

Investors need to capture a good return (risk adjusted) to have any incentive to expose frauds or scams.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't do shit to avoid fraud. The government should enforce fraudulent behavior.

But no, we're in the grift economy where I'm suppose to hedge my bets about how big a fraud is and when someone will wake up naked in a pit of aligators.

Good luck with that.

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