Hermès Birkin

Imagine you are at a car auction. A vintage Mustang comes up and the crowd goes wild. The bidding hits two hundred thousand dollars. But you are a mechanic. You have looked under the bonnet and you know the engine is rusted through. So you make a deal with a friend who owns the same car. You borrow his Mustang, sell it at auction for two hundred thousand, and promise to return an identical one later. A month later, the truth comes out. Buyers discover the rust problem and the same model drops to fifty thousand. You buy one at the new price, return it to your friend, and pocket the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar difference. That is short selling. You sold something you did not own at a high price, waited for reality to catch up, and bought it back cheaper.