If the market for initial public offerings recovers in the new year, one company that aims to go public early on is Reddit. An IPO will put the spotlight on the prospects for Reddit’s advertising business, which has fallen short of ambitious growth targetsoutlined by executives two years ago. ...
You open a brokerage account and get margin approval.
When it IPOs, you do a short sale at your brokerage.
You get the cash for the sale immediately, and get charged interest for your brokerage “lending” you the shares you sold.
Later, you buy the shares back or “buy to cover” and that makes you square with your brokerage.
Hopefully the price went down enough so that the difference between what you sold at and bought at was greater than the interest you paid.
not pictured: Real
investorsgamblers spiking the price to shake out small investors. Leverage has destroyed many people mere seconds before the market turns around.