If they see their short position isn't working out in their favor they can always sell their shorts. The people who buy those shorts don't necessarily have to face such a grim outlook themselves. They can buy relatively few of them and hedge them by buying the actual stock also, and thus can speculate on exactly how fucked those shorts are. Also the hedge fund could also hedge (as their name implies they are capable of doing) and also buy some real stock with their remaining funds. If that hedge fund actually gets hurt then they are either trying to get hurt so they can claim victim or they are very very dumb, or the damage happened immediately while they were caught off guard and anything being done now is irrelevant. Chances are, like smart investors they've already bought the opposite position, and might do so under different names so as to make you think you are continuing to do damage. They aren't idiots. What kind of professional investor invests in something and doesn't monitor it? What kind says, well I bought, I plan to sell on X date, and come what may between then and now. If anything you are harming the stock market more generally by doing this (so good, keep doing that), but we are behaving like little kids obsessed with Yugioh fighting an adult. Just yell out an attack, hold out your hand, and make a lot of noise. Then the adult has to pretend they are actually getting hurt, and the child believes what they are doing is really cool and amazingly powerful. Take that hedge fund!