RE:Short position
You are assuming that the shorts want to make money. That is not always the case, a sure lose situation can often be as beneficial as a sure win situation. Say you have profits in a high tax country such as Canada and would like to relatively safely offset the profits. You can short a stock using a Canadian account and at the same time go long in a tax haven account. The result if everything goes right is big losses in Canada that are tax deductible and big gains in the Tax haven that are not taxed. Offsetting positions leave you neutral to the stock price change, but far ahead for tax purposes. Lots of games are played in the markets and many are not transparent unless you have had the chance to look behind the curtain, so to speak.