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Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

reuters.com

41–50 of 201 posts

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#41

Insiders who have locked up stocks but still want to sell could presumably just short the stock and take out a loan secured on the stock to get the financial effects of selling, without actually selling... I wonder if that's what's happening with ~$1T of stocks currently locked up...

That would be a crime.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#42
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who bought and expected to make a profit, but reached a point where they hit their stop loss or just wanted to get out the trade at any cost and couldn’t bear to wait longer. Quite possible a redditor who frequents r/wallstreetbets and YOLOed in.

They're not really making any money when they close out their short position. The money came when they first opened the short position and sold the shares. When they close they just lock in how much they're going to net off the position.

I don't think it makes sense to say you "made money" when you still have an open-ended liability active.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#43
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> participants with deeper pockets have an inherent advantage I do think they have deeper pockets because they are more informed/sophisticated players, so the whole argument is kind of circular.

If I inherit a billion dollars tomorrow, I will have zero additional information and be no more sophisticated than I am today. But I will have deeper pockets than any retail investor and will be able to withstand market irrationality longer than them.

If you are completely ignorant about markets, deep pocketed and inclined to risk, chances are you are going to lose it all.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#44
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I inherit a billion dollars tomorrow, I will have zero additional information and be no more sophisticated than I am today. But I will have deeper pockets than any retail investor and will be able to withstand market irrationality longer than them.

If you are completely ignorant about markets, deep pocketed and inclined to risk, chances are you are going to lose it all.

Indeed. But that doesn't invalidate the point that deeper-pockets is not equivalent to a more sophisticated or better investor.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#46
post #3

If you make money shorting a stock, who do you make money from?

The key word is "fungibility"

as in, you give back _a_ share not the same share.

So you buy a bunch of shares at x price, you agree to hand them back in n days time.

You make money by selling the shares immediately and then you buy shares later at a lower price, then when you hand back the shares, the profit is the difference between ho much you sold them for, and how much you bought them back again.

The risk is, you _have_ to give the shares back usually at a fixed point in time. So if the price rises, you have to pay the difference. (there is normally a fee as well, to borrow the shares.)

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#47
post #45

it is just so weird to me that nearly $9 BILLION can be created out of nowhere for nothing how can that be healthy for civilization

It's not created out of no where. It's traders saying that the stock is over priced and putting their money where their mouth is and taking on a big risk if they're wrong. They're extracting this money from folks that are putting upwards pressure on the stock saying it should be worth more. They're helping price the stock more efficiency and reducing index trader's expose to an overpriced stock e.g. retirement funds.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alice holds SpaceX stock and believes it will rise. Bob believes the stock will fall. Alice and Bob reach an agreement for Alice to "lend" their SpaceX stock to Bob for a small "fee". Bob immediately sells the SpaceX stock at the current market value. After some time Bob will buy back the sold SpaceX stock at the current market value (hopefully less than Bob sold it for) and return the "borrowed" SpaceX stock to Alic…

It’s also not always the case that Alice is the loser. If SpaceX stock jumps up again after the position closes, then Alice is making money and both parties are winners.

But then Charlie, who buys Alice's shares pays. Someone holds the bag (makes the loss) eventually.

The money being made from SpaceX is money that Musk, or whoever, engineered to be lost from every pension fund that invests in Nasdaq-100; and the Nasdaq appear to have been entirely complicit, changing the rules to make it happen.

I mean Trump stole in the traditional way, using insider dealing, and going to war to manipulate markets. I guess Musk had to one-up him by getting an index itself to forcibly extract money from investors to give to him.

Not sure what his play is at this point, he can't be shorting his own stock, can he?

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#49
post #45

it is just so weird to me that nearly $9 BILLION can be created out of nowhere for nothing how can that be healthy for civilization

Those $9B are created the same way as when the stock would have risen. That's how most of the wealth in the stock market is created nowadays.

Re: Short sellers notch $8.7B profit as SpaceX shares dip to IPO price

#50
I completely understood the idea of Starlink and expected that it would be successful and useful, which it is. I've worked in data centers for decades now, and I am incredibly skeptical of the "data centers in space" sales pitch. It seems like an actual scam.

Data centers submerged in the ocean or placed in the desert seem much more promising. But I have only an enthusiast's understanding of rockets and physics, so I'm genuinely open-minded to the possibility.

Is there anyone credible who thinks this is a plausible pathway for SpaceX to make huge amounts of profit?

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