"And buy the way, yes you can short a loaf of bread. All I need...

"And buy the way, yes you can short a loaf of bread. All I need to do is go to the mill, ask if I can borrow a few thousand loaves, sell them, buy them back when they're cheaper."

I think it would be more like this.

You go to a bakery and borrow someone else's bread that they have paid for. The bakery doesn't tell the real owners of the bread that you have taken it.

You then sell it to someone else. You then buy back stale bread (its now not worth as much) and give it back to the bakery.

The real owners of the bread are obviously not very impressed.


My worry about shorting is not about retail shorters. My worry is about those institutions that can smash the share price and then buy back in off market thus never having to worry about short squeezes.