Short Selling

Definition

Borrowing a stock, selling it, and hoping to buy it back cheaper, which is basically betting against a company's success while profiting from their misery. It's the financial equivalent of rooting for the villain, and occasionally, the villagers fight back with meme stocks.

Example Usage

"He shorted GameStop in January 2021. We don't talk about what happened next. His therapist does, though. Frequently."

Related Terms

Beginner

penny-stock

Stocks trading below $5 per share, typically on over-the-counter markets with minimal regulation or scrutiny. It's where pump-and-dump schemes go to flourish and retail investors go to lose their money quickly.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

profit

The magical number left over after you subtract all expenses from revenue, assuming your accounting department is feeling generous about what counts as an expense. It's what companies supposedly exist to generate, though many startups operate for years as if this is merely optional. Shareholders love it, the IRS wants to tax it, and CFOs have seventeen different ways to calculate it.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

cryp

Abbreviated slang for cryptocurrency, used by people too busy day-trading Dogecoin to type out the full word. It's the linguistic equivalent of buying low and selling lower while pretending you understand blockchain technology.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

sunk cost fallacy

The irrational commitment to failing projects because you've already wasted so much time and money that stopping now would mean admitting it was all pointless. It's throwing good money after bad while calling it 'persistence.'

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

debit

An accounting entry that increases assets or decreases liabilities in the left column of the ledger, or in normal-person terms, money leaving your bank account. It's the financial industry's fancy word for "subtraction" that confuses everyone because in banking, a debit increases your account from the bank's perspective but decreases it from yours. The reason accountants have job security is explaining why debits aren't always subtractions.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Beginner

book-keeping

The meticulous art of recording every financial transaction in a systematic way, traditionally done by people who enjoy spreadsheets more than human interaction. It's the foundation of accounting, involving ledgers, journals, and an obsessive attention to making sure debits equal credits. The only profession where 'excitement' means finding a balanced account.

💰 Finance / Accounting

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