Earlier quoted context omitted.
And further, these were large sophisticated investors that should have known when to get out and take their losses (as Melvin eventually did). For us small time folks we can do a limit short so that our risk exposure is limited.
Is there proof Melvin actually got out? All I saw was a “source” on CNBC. EDIT: This is the story: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/27/melvin-capital-sells-o... It's full of plausible deniability phrases like "from what I understand" and it's very much a game of telephone. They could easily say "when I meant we were out of the stock, I meant that we had covered some of our positions" or similar. I can't find a non-…
Perhaps I'm naïve, but I think to lie about such a thing would pretty clearly fall afoul of the law?