selling short

Cultural  

1. Borrowing shares of stock from a brokerage firm (see broker) and then selling in the expectation that the price of the stock will decline. If it does, the borrower buys them back at a reduced price, returns them to the brokerage, and makes a profit. If it rises, the investor loses money. To sell short is to “short” a stock.

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Example Sentences

Livermore got it right in 1929, selling short before the October crash.

From Barron's • Mar. 1, 2026

"Investment advisers will face more risk when selling short, which will harm investors, market participants, and market efficiency," said its CEO Bryan Corbett.

From Reuters • Oct. 13, 2023

The industry has already changed such that almost no one can make any money selling short stories at all, and such life-changing advances, rare then, are all but impossible now for untested genre authors.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 31, 2023

Relying on a mixture of mathematical wizardry and infallible intuition, Rask profits in bull markets and bear markets, leveraging the gains of the Roaring Twenties and selling short just before the Crash of 1929.

From Washington Post • May 17, 2022

For one thing, your being there selling short.

From A Captain of Industry Being the Story of a Civilized Man by Sinclair, Upton