Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't want to short the one asset that's been on an exponential growth curve. It can only go down 100% but who knows how high it could climb. At least put a ceiling on it.

View on HN

>It can only go down 100%

Isn't this true of all stocks/commodities? You can only lose 100% of your money.

Short selling is a different game. In essence you're betting that the price will go down. Right now the price could go down $500, and you'd make $500. However if the price rose $10,000 you'd lose $10,000.

If you're investing by purchasing the item, then yes, you can only lose 100%. However, if you pay the current rate ( + lending fee ) to borrow a BTC to sell expecting that when you go to repay the BTC you'll be able to purchase one at a much lower rate due to a bubble popping, thus banking the difference, and instead the cost raises exponentially, it could cost you considerably more than 100% of the amount you initially invested when borrowing the initial-sale BTC to buy the BTC you need to replace it.

That is, yes for long positions, no for short sales.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com