Nowadays, we’re trying to “short” Euros, so Greece will go bankrupt.
I don’t know we can use short as a verb like the sentence above, is it a correct?
Thank you!!
Yes, it is correct. It means taking a financial position in Euros which will pay off if the value of the Euro falls. Also, “we’re going to take a short position” or “we’re going to sell Euros short” “we’re going to short Tesla stock.”
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It would take a financial expert to adequately explain this terminology, but ‘to short’ a financial instrument (including currency, such as the Euro) refers to something called ‘short selling.’
‘To short,’ I think, essentially means ‘to sell’ (a borrowed asset first and then buy it later, hopefully at a reduced price from the price at which it was sold to the third party, resulting in a profit for the “short seller.”)
Here is an Investopedia article on the subject:
In other words: We’re trying to ‘short sell’ euros so that Greece will go bankrupt.
So to answer your question: Yes, short is used here as a verb. But what that actually means in the world of finance, I have not a clue. I don’t know whether he was being sarcastic or what. (And judging by the reactions from Fiona and Veronica, I don’t think they did either.)
Another term used during the recap at the beginning of this same episode (Season 2, Episode 1 of Shameless) is ‘to be short’ which means to need more money, i.e. to not have enough money.
How much are we short? (How much more money do we need?)
We’re short $18.30. (We need another $18.30.)
You can also ‘short’ someone, which means to not give them the amount of money they are due.
He shorted me five dollars. (He gave me back five dollars less in change than what I was supposed to receive. Or: He paid me five dollars less than what I was supposed to be paid.)
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