To short or not to short? GameStop (NYSE:GME) ripple effect endures

The mania over gaming vendor GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME)’s wild share price rise and subsequent fall is fading almost as quickly as it began.

But the wider implications of the Reddit army’s ability to influence share markets isn’t likely to go away soon.

In case you’re just tuning in (from, say, Mars) the Reddit army is the cohort of retail investors using social media groups like WallStreetBets to coordinate their investment plans. Their initial targets were short sellers, mostly hedge funds, who hope to profit when a company’s share price falls.

In an oversimplified nutshell, short selling is generally done by selling borrowed shares with the intent to buy them back later at a lower price. The short seller then returns…