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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (88789)	12/28/1999 1:07:00 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

>Because it is true. That's why. Explain to me how a human living in our society could EVER, even theoretically, incur infinite losses by shorting a stock. Lets say you short Yahoo at 100 a share. It goes to 1 quadzillion dollars, and somehow your broker forgets to give you a margin call. When your losses pass 100 billion, the brokerage holding your account goes under, but another REALLY BIG brokerage buys the assets of that brokerage, because they just HAVE to have your amazing debt. In short order, your losses become INFINITE, because you refuse to pick up the phone when the margin clerk calls. The rest of the population of america has become unbelievably wealthy on paper because they took the other side of your trade. They amass outside your trailer park home, carrying torches and shouting: "But you have infinite losses! You must make good on your trade!" As you peer outside the door, you whisper: "But I've only got twenty three bucks and some change in the sofa." Then the entire economic system, which was using the gains against your infinite losses as collateral for loans, collapses. Infinite is a large word.