No. I'm not opposed to it, but will diversify when my skill...

No. I'm not opposed to it, but will diversify when my skill level and experience allows it. If you do the research, and know someone is doing a bad job, it's good to still have an opportunity to make some money on the back of your work. I think a lot of Australians have this negative sentiment towards shorting, because we aren't traders, as much as we are lazy investors. I think generally speaking, most of us just want to park our money in a stock (Most of us at least having looked at the fundamentals) and hope it goes up, or just wait for a dividend cheque each year. Most (Not all) people won't do the work necessary to successfully trade stock and manage positions. Shorters make more work for us. What do you think? Would you like to be able to bet on a horse to win, as well as lose? I wish all of the horses won!