Tom starts with nothing in a three handed game with Dick and Harry who both end end up losing
$50 each and Tom ends up winning $50!

Short-selling is a technique used by investors who think the price of an asset, such as shares, will fall.

They borrow the asset from another investor and then sell it in the relevant market. The aim is to buy back the asset at a lower price and return it to its owner, making a profit along the way.

ie The short seller, Tom, borrows $100 worth of gold from Dick and then sells it to Harrry for $100, then when the price of gold drops to $50 Tom then buys the gold back for $50 from Harry and gives Dick his gold back that he borrowed from him. So Tom makes $50 and both Dick Harrry have lost $50 each.

Least I think that is how it works.

That is basically correct for stocks or shares. In the futures and currency markets, one does not have to “borrow” the asset to sell it short. There is always someone willing to take the opposite side of the transaction by going long.

Short selling applies to other areas of life also. For example, if an automobile dealer sells a car to a customer that he does not have at the time, he is also selling short. He then obtains the car (the asset) at a lower price and delivers it to the customer. Of course, in this instance he also knows the car is available to him at a lower price before he enters into the transaction.

I should also add it is really not a “funny” business … it is dead serious with trillions of dollars/pounds changing hands daily. It is absolutely huge. In fact, London is the biggest and most active currency trading market in the world, followed by New York and Tokyo in that order.

Hail Britannia.

(Oh my gosh. My wife just saw this post and she was born and raised in England. Now she is marching around the house waving the Union Jack and singing "God Save the Queen," and I though I had broken her of that habit. Geez.)

Yes Cag I recall you mentioning being in Hertford and wondering what you would be doing there of all places. I guess you were there visiting the wifes family. Anyway the best poker player in England happens live in Hertford and there used to be a big private cash game there but they a have a club now in London, The Western. you can find a good cash game there if you are around them parts. When the big comps are on over here some of the Yanks head there for a cash game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFJ4eAODu3k&feature=plcp

Well you figured me out on that. Really enjoyed Hertford and all of England for that matter. It was all great - London, the pubs, the quaintness of some areas, the ancient sites and the history wherever you go that goes waaaaay back, the small country roads, Shakespeare’s residence, the “Englishness” of the English and on and on and on. We spent so much time in England that I missed going to Paris, which I will have to catch next time.

There were only two things I could not figure out: Why the English drive on the wrong side of the road and why so many places in England are named after places in the U.S.

I could very easily live in England if…only the English would drop their “accent” and learn to speak proper “American.”

I think the biggest game when it's not WSOP time is in Macau nowadays. Hard to get in it though, nits should not make the effort as they won't be let into the game. Proper Chinese gamb00l baby!

http://www.carbonpoker.ag/blog/biggest-m......ever-02/

Cool! There are plenty of big private cash games in Moscow, since they closed the casinos there. I wish they would close them here and we could all go back to the good old days. Here its like the end of prohibition.