Hi Trish, sorry, but 'in years gone', shorting as we know it today (ie 'borrowing shares to sell) was alive and well! The first record of shorting was actually in 1609 when The Amsterdam Stock Exchange developed shorting contracts. So what we see today has essentially been around for some 400 years - although it has also been blamed over those 400 years for a series of financial disasters including the 1929 Wall Street crash, the subsequent Depression, the GFC etc.It has never been considered particularly ethical but its legal so we need to develop our own investment strategy to take it into account and not just 'blame' short sellers for all our investment misfortunes
