this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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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 ~~investors~~ gamblers spiking the price to shake out small investors. Leverage has destroyed many people mere seconds before the market turns around.
Can you provide some diagrams, audio description and a sniffing sample to aid in understanding what you just said?
You want it in crayons?
That would be amazing. Pictures, not words, please?
Done
They are not going to let a random retail investor naked short an IPO on the IPO day. There's no way you will be able to exit your trade fast enough if it rockets up (in minutes). You actually need to tell the brokerage about your trading experience to be approved for riskier assets and trades.
If you are approved, you will probably need to wait beyond the IPO date. It's too volatile.