Is anyone else following the Citron short seller vs WallStreetBets chaos?

It happens all the time, that’s what contracts are for - committing to a future obligation that you can’t immediately fulfil. Contract law gives people faith in those obligations and has enabled non-trivial transactions that are very important.

Derivatives such as futures and options involve selling something you don’t own.

Developers sell houses that they haven’t built yet.

People can pre-order a whole range of consumer products.

3 Likes