"I won't bemuse you further with a reply to your post and quote listed stocks that have endured painful falls over protracted periods of time."
That those stocks endured painful falls over protracted periods of time can only mean that they were fundamentally overvalued to begin with.
Ergo, the role of short-selling in those cases is no different to long-only investors who sold at the higher levels because they believed those stocks were overvalued.
Frankly, I relish the existence of short-sellers; reason being that their actions have the effect of delivering shares to me at lower price levels that would ordinarily have been the case. No clearer example of this is NHC earlier this year when shorters were their most active.
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NHC Price at posting:
$6.35 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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