But I do get the "buy this stock today" spam
I seem to recall that someone recently (was it on slashdot, maybe?) noted that, historically, shorting those stocks for a day or two is profitable on average. Obviously, the volume is usually so low that you can't make much money without artificially boosting the price and losing money if you don't have enough collateral and your broker forces you to cover.
But I do get the "buy this stock today" spam
I seem to recall that someone recently (was it on slashdot, maybe?) noted that, historically, shorting those stocks for a day or two is profitable on average. Obviously, the volume is usually so low that you can't make much money without artificially boosting the price and losing money if you don't have enough collateral and your broker forces you to cover.
Tyme, I got into shorting stocks for a brief period...very brief.
Going short is about as risky as buying on margin. Essentially, it's the same.
Learned my lesson the hard way.