Shorting...

So people ask me why I don't short since I seem to do well at picking crappy stocks on CAPS. Well if you look at my CAPS profile, you'll notice that most of my picks that I short are only giving me a 100 points or so max. But the picks that I've wrongly called to underperform have hit huge numbers. My biggest loser yet is Hawaiian Airlines (HA), which I underperformed and has had a HUGE +100% run since picking it. doh. Fortunately I've picked more winners than losers so far (crossing fingers!).

When buying stocks, the returns are unlimited as the stock price increases and if the stock plummets, the only losses will be what was put in to purchase the stock. With shorting, however, the exact opposite happens! Since we're betting that the company will do poorly, if the company skyrockets 10-fold, so does your loses. That said, compared to a potential gain of only 100% (if the stock price goes to zero), I don't see it being worth the risk at all.