Why are people saying that short selling is immoral? You buy a stock if you believe a stock is undervalued, you short it if you think it is overvalued. In either case, you believe in something and take a risk based on that. Short sellers help price discovery and often uncover frauds like Enron. Short sellers take more risk and lose money more often than buyers, and short selling itself is not immoral. Also- short selling is not just limited to hedge funds, any retail investors can do it too.