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Let's say that I short-sell 1 share that A lent to me and B immediately bought from me.

  1. Doesn't this create additional share in the market because A will see it as "lent out" in his bank account and B will also see his newly purchased share.
  2. If so, then when each time short seller sells a share, then does that increase "shares outstanding" amount? Or is that tracked under some other metric?

4 Answers 4

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When share are loaned out by (A) to (B) who wants to short the shares, the actual shares are no longer in (A)'s account. There's a book entry indicating that (A) owns them (an IOU) but there is no longer any physical possession. (B) now sells the shares that he borrowed to (C) who now owns them and has physical possession.

No new shares have been created in this process. However, a new long position and a new short position have been created. So if this involved 100 shares, the end result would be that (A) owns 100 shares (IOU), (B) is short 100 shares and (C) owns 100 shares for a book entry total of +200 shares and -100 shares which equals +100 or the original amount of shares.

The brokers keep track of these transactions as well as borrow costs to be paid by (B) to (A) as well as any dividend paid from (B) to (A) if (B) is short the shares on the ex-dividend date while (C) gets the actual dividend).

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  • So, total_long_positions=shares_outstanding+shares_shorted? What is the financial name for "total_long_positions", because I imagine if I would count shares across all shareholders, then it would have to add up to total_long_positions and not shares_outstanding? Aug 10, 2018 at 1:28
  • BTW, in my example there was A, B and Me. A would have 1 share that is lent out. B would have 1 share that is not lent out. And I would have -1 share. Aug 10, 2018 at 1:31
  • "So, total_long_positions=shares_outstanding+shares_shorted?" Yes but I would frame it as Total Long Shares + Total Short Shares = Outstanding Shares. This might confuse things more but imagine a managed fund that does some shorting to hedge a long portfolio. You give them $100k and with that, they short $20k of stock. If prices are unchanged, you own $120k of stock but you are short $20k of stock, equaling the $100k that you gave them. It all adds up to the original amount until share price changes valuation. It's the same with the shares in your example. Aug 10, 2018 at 1:44
  • Shares outstanding only changes from corporate events. Aug 10, 2018 at 1:46
  • What if A purchased the shares the B borrowed to sell short? Now A owns 200 shares, and B is short 100 shares, which should add up to 100, but suppose that A doesn't ever intend to sell any shares. Greatly simplified in excluding other owners of shares, but suppose we could group all (or enough) owners into an aggregate group A like this?
    – user12515
    Dec 19, 2019 at 4:18
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No. It doesn't.

Think of it like you borrowed a car from friend and sold to someone. There is only one car, but there is a broker who will keep track of the borrowing, ensure that you pay interest and dividend to the owner. At some point but another car and give it back to you friend

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  • So, in presence of short selling the sum of all shares across all shareholder accounts (including the ones that lent out their shares) is more than shares outstanding? Or it adds up to shares outstanding? Aug 10, 2018 at 1:35
  • @HansSolo The sum of shares is same. Its similar to if you let your friend borrow your car, the number of cars are same. There is an additional entry / tracking between you and your friend that you need to return one car.
    – Dheer
    Aug 10, 2018 at 4:11
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Legally no new shares are created, however, new shares for trading purposes are created. It's like copying a digital file and creating new copies. The owner owns the original but new traders can trade the copies. This has a dilutive effect on stock prices as supply increases. All copied shares (shorted shares) are traded just like regular shares in the open marketplace.

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    This is not true. Shorting does not create any new shares (legally or otherwise). If you buy a car and then loan that car to someone else, no new car is created. If you short a stock, you borrow it from someone else, and the original owner has to get the share back to do anything with it.
    – D Stanley
    Oct 22, 2018 at 13:44
  • @DStanley I guess in the same sense that fractional reserve does not create money?
    – user253751
    Jan 16, 2020 at 17:38
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If I have a wheel barrel and my broker borrows it and lends it to someone, I am short it and the person the broker lends it to sells it to someone that person now possesses it, So I am short it, the person who sold it is short it and only one wheel barrel exist. In reality, it does not change the issued and outstanding shares, but being these shares can be traded as real shares they can greatly affect the liquidity of the stock and have a ghost effect of heavy dilution that can bog the stock price down. As well there is the additional effect of nacked shorts which are shorted shares that are not even borrowed they are shares shorted that do not even exist. Unethical Brokers and as well preferred shareholders with huge conversion ability will naked short shares and push the price down and heavily dilute the stock to keep the value dropping, most preferred shareholders will have conversion based on value and the lower the share price the greater number of shares they get on conversion after they naked short sometimes millions of shares and pushed the price down that will convert their preferred shares of which disclosure of this is stated to the public and counted in the weight of further dilution which as well puts down pressure on the stock price, and the preferred acting with a clearly crooked broker will by back the shares in the public sell-off as the price drops and distribute the converted shares to those that do not sell their shares back and cancel out the naked shorts. So it depends on a lot of factors in relation to how the short is being done.

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  • If your shares are loaned by your broker (the wheelbarrow in your analogy), you are NOT 'short it'. You are the rightful owner but it is not in your account. Legitimate shorting of shares increases the liquidity of the stock and it does not cause dilution because the float is unchanged. May 8, 2020 at 3:25
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    A wall of text is hard to read. Please consider making this into paragraphs. May 8, 2020 at 10:04

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