With such a vehicle at our disposal, [Fuller] felt that human travel, like that of birds, would no longer be confined to airports, roads, and other bureaucratic boundaries, and that autonomous free-thinking human beings could live and prosper wherever they chose.
130-677: Lloyd S. Sieden, Bucky Fuller's Universe , 2000 Fuller described the Dymaxion as a "zoomobile", explaining that it could hop off the road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic. R. (Richard) Buckminster Fuller 1895-1983 The Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair . Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess – using donated money as well as
260-493: A custodian or investment management firm, often lend out these securities to gain extra income, a process known as securities lending . The lender receives a fee for this service. Similarly, retail investors can sometimes make an extra fee when their broker wants to borrow their securities. This is only possible when the investor has full title of the security, so it cannot be used as collateral for margin buying . Time delayed short interest data (for legally shorted shares)
390-494: A Verb , he wrote: "I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe." Fuller wrote that the universe's natural analytic geometry was based on tetrahedra arrays. He developed this in several ways, from the close-packing of spheres and the number of compressive or tensile members required to stabilize an object in space. One confirming result
520-431: A buyer and seller. Each trade results in a "long" (buyer's position) and a "short" (seller's position). When trading futures contracts , being 'short' means having the legal obligation to deliver something at the expiration of the contract, although the holder of the short position may alternately buy back the contract prior to expiration instead of making delivery. Short futures transactions are often used by producers of
650-544: A commitment to "the search for the principles governing the universe and help advance the evolution of humanity in accordance with them ... finding ways of doing more with less to the end that all people everywhere can have more and more." By 1928, Fuller was living in Greenwich Village and spending much of his time at the popular café Romany Marie 's, where he had spent an evening in conversation with Marie and Eugene O'Neill several years earlier. Fuller accepted
780-455: A commodity to fix the future price of goods they have not yet produced. Shorting a futures contract is sometimes also used by those holding the underlying asset (i.e. those with a long position) as a temporary hedge against price declines. Shorting futures may also be used for speculative trades, in which case the investor is looking to profit from any decline in the price of the futures contract prior to expiration. An investor can also purchase
910-414: A compilation eight days later. Some market data providers (like Data Explorers and SunGard Financial Systems ) believe that stock lending data provides a good proxy for short interest levels (excluding any naked short interest). SunGard provides daily data on short interest by tracking the proxy variables based on borrowing and lending data it collects. Days to Cover (DTC) is the relationship between
1040-415: A decrease in the price of a security, a short seller can borrow the security and sell it, expecting that it will be cheaper to repurchase in the future. When the seller decides that the time is right (or when the lender recalls the securities), the seller buys the same number of equivalent securities and returns them to the lender. The act of buying back the securities that were sold short is called covering
1170-416: A family inheritance – to explore not an automobile per se, but the 'ground-taxiing phase' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive – an "Omni-Medium Transport". Fuller associated the word Dymaxion with much of his work, a portmanteau of the words dy namic , max imum , and tens ion , to summarize his goal to do more with less. The Dymaxion's aerodynamic bodywork
1300-432: A family inheritance. Fuller associated the word Dymaxion , a blend of the words dy namic , max imum , and tens ion to sum up the goal of his study, "maximum gain of advantage from minimal energy input". The Dymaxion was not an automobile but rather the 'ground-taxying mode' of a vehicle that might one day be designed to fly, land and drive — an "Omni-Medium Transport" for air, land and water. Fuller focused on
1430-460: A fine-mist shower that reduces water consumption. According to Fuller biographer Steve Crooks, the house was designed to be delivered in two cylindrical packages, with interior color panels available at local dealers. A circular structure at the top of the house was designed to rotate around a central mast to use natural winds for cooling and air circulation. Short (finance) In finance , being short in an asset means investing in such
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#17328582596951560-440: A full skin of concrete it was not until 1949 that Fuller erected a geodesic dome building that could sustain its own weight with no practical limits. It was 4.3 meters (14 feet) in diameter and constructed of aluminium aircraft tubing and a vinyl-plastic skin, in the form of an icosahedron . To prove his design, Fuller suspended from the structure's framework several students who had helped him build it. The U.S. government recognized
1690-399: A future date at a price stated in the contract. If the price of the asset falls below the contract price, the short seller can buy it at the lower market value and immediately sell it at the higher price specified in the contract. A short position can also be achieved through certain types of swap , such as a contract for difference . This is an agreements between two parties to pay each other
1820-488: A future technology that could provide compact, concentrated lift — twenty years before the commercial availability of jets . Estimating that designing a land–sea–air vehicle was then financially and technically out of reach, Fuller focused on the most dangerous and challenging mode of such vehicle: landing and taxiing on hard ground. Fuller favored front-wheel drive, studying the way a wheelbarrow could more effectively pull its load rather than pitch forward when pushing
1950-478: A habit of being familiar with and knowledgeable about the materials that his later projects would require. Fuller earned a machinist 's certification, and knew how to use the press brake , stretch press, and other tools and equipment used in the sheet metal trade. Fuller attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts, and after that began studying at Harvard College , where he was affiliated with Adams House . He
2080-546: A job decorating the interior of the café in exchange for meals, giving informal lectures several times a week, and models of the Dymaxion house were exhibited at the café. Isamu Noguchi arrived during 1929— Constantin Brâncuși , an old friend of Marie's, had directed him there —and Noguchi and Fuller were soon collaborating on several projects, including the modeling of the Dymaxion car based on recent work by Aurel Persu . It
2210-476: A large quantity of stock before the Great Depression, becoming instantly wealthy. Pearson had known of Fuller's studies, had more wealth than he needed, and felt he could put Fuller and others to work in a way that would also do something to alleviate unemployment. Fuller initially refused his benefactor, concerned about potential profit motives and short-sightedness. Fuller devised a contract, famously adding
2340-441: A load. He began studies of the relationships between vehicles (cars, trucks – and also birds and fish) with the media in which they operated ( fluid dynamics ) – as well as steering mechanisms in nature, especially the rear "single fin" steering of birds and fish. Burgess, inventor of the first delta-wing aircraft, was invaluable to the project – but skeptical the vehicle would ever fly. Fuller theorized that getting
2470-472: A locate. More stringent rules were put in place in September 2008, ostensibly to prevent the practice from exacerbating market declines. These rules were made permanent in 2009. When a broker facilitates the delivery of a client's short sale, the client is charged a fee for this service, usually a standard commission similar to that of purchasing a similar security. If the short position begins to move against
2600-405: A long, aerodynamic 'plane' fuselage – which was also inclined to have trailing, rear steering – to land safely and not immediately turn into the wind, would be a major challenge. The vehicle would inherently exhibit something he called "ground-loopiness," and chose to focus his energy there. Although it was never intended as such, Fuller anticipated the public would instinctively call such
2730-450: A loss. The short seller usually must pay a handling fee to borrow the asset (charged at a particular rate over time, similar to an interest payment ) and reimburse the lender for any cash return (such as a dividend ) that was paid on the asset while borrowed. A short position can also be created through a futures contract , forward contract , or option contract , by which the short seller assumes an obligation or right to sell an asset at
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#17328582596952860-469: A new apparatus for human propulsion of small boats. By age 12, he had invented a 'push pull' system for propelling a rowboat by use of an inverted umbrella connected to the transom with a simple oar lock which allowed the user to face forward to point the boat toward its destination. Later in life, Fuller took exception to the term "invention." Years later, he decided that this sort of experience had provided him with not only an interest in design, but also
2990-419: A program of constant refinement and improvement to the platform. Because of its limitations, Fuller and Burgess limited driving to a list of trained drivers and restricted use in high winds or inclement weather. Soon after launching Prototype One , Fuller was invited to exhibit the Dymaxion at a Bronx race track, beating the track record by 50% and drawing attention because it did not slide or drift across
3120-448: A rise in the price of an instrument that appears undervalued. Alternatively, traders or fund managers may use offsetting short positions to hedge certain risks that exist in a long position or a portfolio. Research indicates that banning short selling is ineffective and has negative effects on markets. Nevertheless, short selling is subject to criticism and periodically faces hostility from society and policymakers. To profit from
3250-425: A short position. When a security's ex-dividend date passes, the dividend is deducted from the shortholder's account and paid to the person from whom the stock is borrowed. For some brokers, the short seller may not earn interest on the proceeds of the short sale or use it to reduce outstanding margin debt. These brokers may not pass this benefit on to the retail client unless the client is very large. The interest
3380-528: A so-called "ice cream soda clause" where Fuller could freely buy only ice cream sodas with all the donated money, should he so choose. On March 4, 1933 – as President Roosevelt instituted a banking moratorium , Fuller formed Dymaxion Corporation , set up a workshop in the former dynamometer building of the defunct Locomobile Company at Tongue Point, on the west side of the harbor in Bridgeport, Connecticut , and hired naval architect Starling Burgess and
3510-464: A start-up company could backfire since it could be taken over at a price higher than the price at which speculators shorted; short-sellers were forced to cover their positions at acquisition prices, while in many cases the firm often overpaid for the start-up. During the 2008 financial crisis , critics argued that investors taking large short positions in struggling financial firms like Lehman Brothers , HBOS and Morgan Stanley created instability in
3640-550: A team of 27 workmen, including former Rolls-Royce mechanics. 1000 workmen had applied for the 27 jobs. The first of three prototypes was completed in three months – on Fuller's 38th birthday, July 12, 1933. On October 18, 1933, Fuller filed a patent, which was granted in 1937. Because Fuller was aiming for what he called Omni Medium Transport, a vehicle that could go anywhere, the Dymaxion would ultimately have "wheels for ground travel and jet stilts for instant takeoff and flight." Jet stilts were Fuller's placeholder idea for
3770-442: A transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their actual earnings. An encapsulation quotation of his views might best be summed up as: "There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of ignorance." Though Fuller was concerned about sustainability and human survival under the existing socioeconomic system, he remained optimistic about humanity's future. Defining wealth in terms of knowledge as
3900-415: A vehicle an automobile , and when licensing to drive the vehicle on Connecticut roads, acquiesced and applied for an automobile registration. Fuller had worked with sculptor Isamu Noguchi to create plaster wind tunnel models of the Dymaxion to help determine its teardrop shape. Authors of a 2011 detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis at Coventry University of the Dymaxion bodywork noted
4030-433: A vehicle at our disposal, [Fuller] felt that human travel, like that of birds, would no longer be confined to airports, roads, and other bureaucratic boundaries, and that autonomous free-thinking human beings could live and prosper wherever they chose. — Lloyd S. Sieden, Bucky Fuller's Universe , 2000 To his young daughter Allegra: Fuller described the Dymaxion as a " zoom-mobile , explaining that it could hop off
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4160-417: A way that the investor will profit if the market value of the asset falls. This is the opposite of the more common long position , where the investor will profit if the market value of the asset rises. An investor that sells an asset short is, as to that asset, a short seller . There are a number of ways of achieving a short position. The most basic is physical selling short or short-selling , by which
4290-483: A white sphere of light. A voice spoke directly to Fuller, and declared: From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to
4420-565: Is available in a number of countries, including the US, the UK, Hong Kong, and Spain. The number of stocks being shorted on a global basis has increased in recent years for various structural reasons (e.g., the growth of 130/30 type strategies, short or bear ETFs). The data is typically delayed; for example, the NASDAQ requires its broker-dealer member firms to report data on the 15th of each month, and then publishes
4550-628: Is detected by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (in the US) as a " failure to deliver " or simply "fail." While many fails are settled in a short time, some have been allowed to linger in the system. In the US, arranging to borrow a security before a short sale is called a locate . In 2005, to prevent widespread failure to deliver securities, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put in place Regulation SHO , intended to prevent speculators from selling some stocks short before doing
4680-419: Is often split with the lender of the security. Where shares have been shorted and the company that issues the shares distributes a dividend, the question arises as to who receives the dividend. The new buyer of the shares, who is the holder of record and holds the shares outright, receives the dividend from the company. However, the lender, who may hold its shares in a margin account with a prime broker and
4810-402: Is sold, the seller is contractually obliged to deliver it to the buyer. If a seller sells a security short without owning it first, the seller must borrow the security from a third party to fulfill its obligation. Otherwise, the seller fails to deliver, the transaction does not settle , and the seller may be subject to a claim from its counterparty . Certain large holders of securities, such as
4940-426: Is unlikely to be aware that these particular shares are being lent out for shorting, also expects to receive a dividend. The short seller therefore pays the lender an amount equal to the dividend to compensate—though technically, as this payment does not come from the company, it is not a dividend. The short seller is therefore said to be short the dividend . A similar issue comes up with the voting rights attached to
5070-672: The American Humanist Association named him the 1969 Humanist of the Year. In 1976, Fuller was a key participant at UN Habitat I , the first UN forum on human settlements. Fuller's last filmed interview took place on June 21, 1983, in which he spoke at Norman Foster 's Royal Gold Medal for architecture ceremony. His speech can be watched in the archives of the AA School of Architecture, in which he spoke after Sir Robert Sainsbury 's introductory speech and Foster's keynote address. In
5200-480: The Depression . A few years later, in 1949, Alfred Winslow Jones founded a fund (that was unregulated) that bought stocks while selling other stocks short, hence hedging some of the market risk , and the hedge fund was born. Negative news, such as litigation against a company, may also entice professional traders to sell the stock short in hope of the stock price going down. During the dot-com bubble , shorting
5330-450: The Dymaxion car project. International recognition began with the success of huge geodesic domes during the 1950s. Fuller lectured at North Carolina State University in Raleigh in 1949, where he met James Fitzgibbon, who would become a close friend and colleague. Fitzgibbon was director of Geodesics, Inc. and Synergetics, Inc. the first licensees to design geodesic domes. Thomas C. Howard
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5460-835: The Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects the same year. Also in 1970, Fuller received the title of Master Architect from Alpha Rho Chi (APX), the national fraternity for architecture and the allied arts. In 1976, he received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. In 1977, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . He also received numerous other awards, including
5590-568: The NYSE or the NASDAQ typically report the "short interest" of a stock, which gives the number of shares that have been legally sold short as a percent of the total float . Alternatively, these can also be expressed as the short interest ratio , which is the number of shares legally sold short as a multiple of the average daily volume. These can be useful tools to spot trends in stock price movements but for them to be reliable, investors must also ascertain
5720-508: The Presidential Medal of Freedom , presented to him on February 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan . Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts , the son of Richard Buckminster Fuller, a prosperous leather and tea merchant, and Caroline Wolcott Andrews. He was a grand-nephew of Margaret Fuller , an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with
5850-562: The U.S. Navy in World War I , as a shipboard radio operator, as an editor of a publication, and as commander of the crash rescue boat USS Inca . After discharge, he worked again in the meat-packing industry, acquiring management experience. In 1917, he married Anne Hewlett. During the early 1920s, he and his father-in-law developed the Stockade Building System for producing lightweight, weatherproof, and fireproof housing—although
5980-587: The United Kingdom , Germany , France , Italy and other European countries in 2008 to minimal effect. Australia moved to ban naked short selling entirely in September 2008. Germany placed a ban on naked short selling of certain euro zone securities in 2010. Spain, Portugal and Italy introduced short selling bans in 2011 and again in 2012. During the COVID-19 pandemic , shorting was severely restricted or temporarily banned, with European market watchdogs tightening
6110-854: The University of Pennsylvania , Bryn Mawr College , Haverford College , Swarthmore College , and the University City Science Center ; as a result of this affiliation, the University of Pennsylvania appointed him university professor emeritus in 1975. Fuller believed human societies would soon rely mainly on renewable sources of energy , such as solar- and wind-derived electricity. He hoped for an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity." Fuller referred to himself as "the property of universe" and during one radio interview he gave later in life, declared himself and his work "the property of all humanity." For his lifetime of work,
6240-418: The "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life", his analysis of the condition of "Spaceship Earth" caused him to conclude that at a certain time during the 1970s, humanity had attained an unprecedented state. He was convinced that the accumulation of relevant knowledge, combined with the quantities of major recyclable resources that had already been extracted from
6370-541: The American transcendentalism movement. The unusual middle name, Buckminster, was an ancestral family name. As a child, Richard Buckminster Fuller tried numerous variations of his name. He used to sign his name differently each year in the guest register of his family summer vacation home at Bear Island, Maine. He finally settled on R. Buckminster Fuller. Fuller spent much of his youth on Bear Island , in Penobscot Bay off
6500-433: The Dymaxion as: A "zoomobile", explaining that it could hop off the road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic. Fuller was offered $ 5,000 (2023: $ 119,500) from wealthy former stock trader and socialite Philip (variously reported as Phillip ) Pearson and his wife Temple Pearson (niece of Isadora Duncan ) of Philadelphia. Pearson was a stock broker and had presciently sold short
6630-467: The Dymaxion concept would present considerable challenges. As anticipated, and in line with the purpose of the exploration, maneuvering in high winds proved problematic, with the vehicle having a strong tendency to turn into the wind. Steering difficulty and lift at the rear of the vehicle were also observed. Fuller realized the Dymaxion "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements," and instituted
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#17328582596956760-484: The Dymaxion only after it had begun to roll over. Fuller, who was not present at the accident, provided his version of events in a book he wrote in collaboration with Robert Marks on the Dymaxion; this account was repeated in Lloyd Steven Sieden's book on Fuller. They stated that the two vehicles were traveling at 70 mph, with Turner trying to evade the politician's car. The inquest showed, they argued, that
6890-616: The Dymaxion, as he saw much of the world, as a kind of provisional prototype, a mere sketch, of the glorious, eventual future." Fuller would ultimately go on to fully develop his Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science , his theory of using all technology on behalf of all people as soon as possible, but by this point it was "his job, Fuller decided, to identify a problem, develop a way to solve it, and wait – perhaps as long as twenty-five years – for public awareness to catch up. In 1930, Fuller had purchased an architectural magazine, T-Square , which he ultimately renamed Shelter. Fuller edited
7020-672: The Dymaxion. Walter Chrysler was interested, although he advised Fuller that such an advanced design would meet considerable resistance, and would make every used car on the road obsolete, threatening the wholesale dealer distribution and finance network. In his 1988 book, The Age of Heretics , author Art Kleiner said bankers had threatened to recall their loans, feeling the car would destroy sales for second-hand cars and for vehicles already in distribution channels. Hemmings Motor News cites two "faithful or semi-faithful" replicas: Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller ( / ˈ f ʊ l ər / ; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983)
7150-553: The U.S., the seller must arrange for a broker-dealer to confirm that it can deliver the shorted securities. This is referred to as a locate . Brokers have a variety of means to borrow stocks to facilitate locates and make good on delivery of the shorted security. The vast majority of stocks borrowed by U.S. brokers come from loans made by the leading custody banks and fund management companies (see list below). Institutions often lend out their shares to earn extra money on their investments. These institutional loans are usually arranged by
7280-474: The US.) This means that the buyer of such a short is buying the short-seller's promise to deliver a share, rather than buying the share itself. The short-seller's promise is known as a hypothecated share. When the holder of the underlying stock receives a dividend, the holder of the hypothecated share would receive an equal dividend from the short seller. Naked shorting has been made illegal except where allowed under limited circumstances by market makers . It
7410-586: The United States in 1929 and in 1940. Political fallout from the 1929 crash led Congress to enact a law banning short sellers from selling shares during a downtick; this was known as the uptick rule and was in effect until 3 July 2007, when it was removed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC Release No. 34-55970). President Herbert Hoover condemned short sellers and even J. Edgar Hoover said he would investigate short sellers for their role in prolonging
7540-582: The accounts of their own customers. Typical margin account agreements give brokerage firms the right to borrow customer shares without notifying the customer. In general, brokerage accounts are only allowed to lend shares from accounts for which customers have debit balances , meaning they have borrowed from the account. SEC Rule 15c3-3 imposes such severe restrictions on the lending of shares from cash accounts or excess margin (fully paid for) shares from margin accounts that most brokerage firms do not bother except in rare circumstances. (These restrictions include that
7670-582: The architectural firm Fuller & Sadao Inc., whose first project was to design the large geodesic dome for the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal. This building is now the " Montreal Biosphère ". In 1962, the artist and searcher John McHale wrote the first monograph on Fuller, published by George Braziller in New York. After employing several Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) graduate students to rebuild his models following an apartment fire in
7800-519: The asset in question in order to hedge their position. The practice of short selling was likely invented in 1609 by Dutch businessman Isaac Le Maire , a sizeable shareholder of the Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch). Short selling can exert downward pressure on the underlying stock, driving down the price of shares of that security. This, combined with
7930-599: The bicycle does not change and the same bicycle must be returned, not merely one that is the same model. Because the price of a share is theoretically unlimited, the potential losses of a short-seller are also theoretically unlimited. Shares in ACME Inc. currently trade at $ 10 per share . Shares in ACME Inc. currently trade at $ 10 per share. "Shorting" or "going short" (and sometimes also "short selling") also refer more broadly to any transaction used by an investor to profit from
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#17328582596958060-430: The broker must have the express permission of the customer and provide collateral or a letter of credit.) Most brokers allow retail customers to borrow shares to short a stock only if one of their own customers has purchased the stock on margin . Brokers go through the "locate" process outside their own firm to obtain borrowed shares from other brokers only for their large institutional customers. Stock exchanges such as
8190-546: The car [he, himself, had] always wanted to produce", when his company had set out to design a highly advanced, aerodynamic car, the Airflow , which Walter Chrysler ultimately found inferior. Chrysler commissioned Fuller to study the development of the Airflow, finding that Fuller had used one quarter the money and a third the time to make his prototype. At various points, it appeared that several manufacturers were interested in marketing
8320-472: The coast of Maine. He attended Froebelian Kindergarten He was dissatisfied with the way geometry was taught in school, disagreeing with the notions that a chalk dot on the blackboard represented an "empty" mathematical point , or that a line could stretch off to infinity . To him these were illogical, and led to his work on synergetics . He often made items from materials he found in the woods, and sometimes made his own tools. He experimented with designing
8450-446: The company would ultimately fail in 1927. Fuller recalled 1927 as a pivotal year of his life. His daughter Alexandra had died in 1922 of complications from polio and spinal meningitis just before her fourth birthday. Barry Katz, a Stanford University scholar who wrote about Fuller, found signs that around this time in his life Fuller had developed depression and anxiety . Fuller dwelled on his daughter's death, suspecting that it
8580-421: The cost to borrow (short) Krispy Kreme stock reached an annualized 55%, indicating that a short seller would need to pay the lender more than half the price of the stock over the course of the year, essentially as interest for borrowing a stock in limited supply. This has important implications for derivatives pricing and strategy, for the borrow cost itself can become a significant convenience yield for holding
8710-423: The crash is disputed. A coroner 's inquest did not ascribe fault for the accident, stating that it involved a collision with a car driven by a shoe salesman named Meyer Roth (Fuller erroneously identified Roth as a highly placed Chicago Parks commissioner). When Fuller learned that another car was involved, he placed the blame for the incident entirely on Roth. Eyewitnesses, however, stated that Roth's vehicle struck
8840-419: The custodian who holds the securities for the institution. In an institutional stock loan, the borrower puts up cash collateral, typically 102% of the value of the stock. The cash collateral is then invested by the lender, who often rebates part of the interest to the borrower. The interest that is kept by the lender is the compensation to the lender for the stock loan. Brokerage firms can also borrow stocks from
8970-403: The decline in price of a borrowed asset or financial instrument. Derivatives contracts that can be used in this way include futures , options , and swaps . These contracts are typically cash-settled, meaning that no buying or selling of the asset in question is actually involved in the contract, although typically one side of the contract will be a broker that will effect a back-to-back sale of
9100-446: The design of the Dymaxion was not a factor in the crash. The politician's car, they further claimed, was quickly and illegally removed from the scene of the crash before reporters arrived. Turner was wearing a seatbelt but was killed when the canvas-covered roof framing collapsed. Dollfuss was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected and landed nearby on his feet. Sempill was severely injured and took months to recover before he could testify at
9230-552: The difference if the price of an asset rises or falls, under which the party that will benefit if the price falls will have a short position. Because a short seller can incur a liability to the lender if the price rises, and because a short sale is normally done through a stockbroker , a short seller is typically required to post margin to its broker as collateral to ensure that any such liabilities can be met, and to post additional margin if losses begin to accrue. For analogous reasons, short positions in derivatives also usually involve
9360-562: The direction of the wind – the direction of least resistance. This is called ground looping. I realized that the most difficult conditions for my omni-medium jet-stilt superbly faired flying device would be when it was on the ground. What is popularly called the Dymaxion Car were the first three vehicles designed to test ground taxiing under transverse wind conditions. Bucky Fuller, Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller , 1983 Fuller and Burgess realized early that
9490-438: The earth, had attained a critical level, such that competition for necessities had become unnecessary. Cooperation had become the optimum survival strategy. He declared: "selfishness is unnecessary and hence-forth unrationalizable ... War is obsolete." He criticized previous utopian schemes as too exclusive and thought this was a major source of their failure. To work, he felt that a utopia needed to include everyone. Fuller
9620-429: The efficiency of the entire process. Fuller also coined the word synergetics , a catch-all term used broadly for communicating experiences using geometric concepts, and more specifically, the empirical study of systems in transformation; his focus was on total system behavior unpredicted by the behavior of any isolated components. Fuller was a pioneer in thinking globally and explored energy and material efficiency in
9750-412: The fields of architecture, engineering, and design. In his book Critical Path (1981) he cited the opinion of François de Chadenèdes (1920–1999) that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost in our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux ), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon ($ 300,000 per litre) to produce. From this point of view, its use as
9880-502: The form's "similarity in shape to a humpback whale " and concluded "the Dymaxion car looks close to a drag optimum style and serves as a useful reference for low drag forms." In 1934, Noguchi drove a completed Dymaxion on an extended road trip through Connecticut with Clare Boothe Luce and Dorothy Hale , stopping to see Thornton Wilder in Hamden, Connecticut , before driving to Hartford for
10010-515: The geodesic design by Walther Bauersfeld for the Zeiss-Planetarium , built some 28 years prior to Fuller's work, reveals that Fuller's Geodesic Dome patent (U.S. 2,682,235; awarded in 1954) is the same design as Bauersfeld's. Their construction is based on extending some basic principles to build simple " tensegrity " structures (tetrahedron, octahedron , and the closest packing of spheres), making them lightweight and stable. The geodesic dome
10140-491: The highest advantage of others. Fuller stated that this experience led to a profound re-examination of his life. He ultimately chose to embark on "an experiment, to find what a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity." Speaking to audiences later in life, Fuller would frequently recount the story of his Lake Michigan experience, and its transformative impact on his life. In 1927, Fuller resolved to think independently which included
10270-518: The holder of the short position (i.e., the price of the security begins to rise), money is removed from the holder's cash balance and moved to their margin balance . If short shares continue to rise in price, and the holder does not have sufficient funds in the cash account to cover the position, the holder begins to borrow on margin for this purpose, thereby accruing margin interest charges. These are computed and charged just as for any other margin debit. Therefore, only margin accounts can be used to open
10400-655: The importance of this work, and employed his firm Geodesics, Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina to make small domes for the Marines . Within a few years, there were thousands of such domes around the world. Fuller's first "continuous tension – discontinuous compression" geodesic dome (full sphere in this case) was constructed at the University of Oregon Architecture School in 1959 with the help of students. These continuous tension – discontinuous compression structures featured single force compression members (no flexure or bending moments) that did not touch each other and were 'suspended' by
10530-495: The landing and taxiing qualities, and noted severe limitations in its handling. The team made improvements and refinements to the platform, and Fuller noted the Dymaxion "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements". The bodywork was aerodynamically designed for increased fuel efficiency and its platform featured a lightweight cromoly-steel hinged chassis, rear-mounted V8 engine, front-drive, and three-wheels. The vehicle
10660-464: The limited understanding of the effects of lift and turbulence on automobile bodies in that era – allowing only trained staff to drive the car and saying it "was an invention that could not be made available to the general public without considerable improvements." Shortly after its launch, a prototype crashed and killed the Dymaxion's driver. Despite courting publicity and the interest of auto manufacturers, Fuller used his inheritance to finish
10790-653: The magazine anonymously for two years, and in 1928 published sketches of his land-air-water vehicle, called a 4D Transport . 4D stood for Four Dimensional, a term used in physics and mathematics, referring to length, width, depth and time. Regarding the 4D transport, author Lloyd S. Sieden, wrote in his 2000 book Bucky Fuller's Universe : With such a vehicle at our disposal, [Fuller] felt that human travel, like that of birds, would no longer be confined to airports, roads, and other bureaucratic boundaries, and that autonomous free-thinking human beings could live and prosper wherever they chose. To his daughter, Allegra, he described
10920-401: The number of shares brought into existence by naked shorters. Speculators are cautioned to remember that for every share that has been shorted (owned by a new owner), a 'shadow owner' exists (i.e., the original owner) who also is part of the universe of owners of that stock, i.e., despite having no voting rights, he has not relinquished his interest and some rights in that stock. When a security
11050-504: The number of shares in a given equity that has been legally short-sold and the number of days of typical trading that it would require to 'cover' all legal short positions outstanding. For example, if there are ten million shares of XYZ Inc. that are currently legally short-sold and the average daily volume of XYZ shares traded each day is one million, it would require ten days of average trading for all legal short positions to be covered (10 million / 1 million). Short Interest relates
11180-570: The number of shares in a given equity that have been legally shorted divided by the total shares outstanding for the company, usually expressed as a percent. For example, if there are ten million shares of XYZ Inc. that are currently legally short-sold, and the total number of shares issued by the company is one hundred million, the Short Interest is 10% (10 million / 100 million). If, however, shares are being created through naked short selling, "fails" data must be accessed to assess accurately
11310-404: The number of votes cast is greater than the number of shares issued by the company. Transactions in financial derivatives such as options and futures have the same name but have different overlaps, one notable overlap is having an equal "negative" amount in the position. However, the practice of a short position in derivatives is completely different. Derivatives are contracts between two parties,
11440-400: The other assets being sold short) are fungible . An investor therefore "borrows" securities in the same sense as one borrows a $ 10 bill, where the legal ownership of the money is transferred to the borrower and it can be freely disposed of, and different bank notes or coins can be returned to the lender. This can be contrasted with the sense in which one borrows a bicycle, where the ownership of
11570-547: The other car hit the Dymaxion only after it had begun to roll over. Despite courting the interest of important figures from the auto industry, Fuller used his family inheritance to finish the second and third prototypes — eventually selling all three, dissolving Dymaxion Corporation and maintaining the Dymaxion was never intended as a commercial venture. One of the three original prototypes survives. Fuller's energy-efficient and inexpensive Dymaxion house garnered much interest, but only two prototypes were ever produced. Here
11700-586: The out-of-town opening of Gertrude Stein 's and Virgil Thomson 's Four Saints in Three Acts . One of the prototypes was driven extensively in a campaign to raise funds in support of the Allies in WW II. Everything in the Universe is always moving in the direction of least resistance. When what we call a light plane, one flown by an individual, lands crosswind, its fairing or streamlining makes it want to turn violently in
11830-535: The period leading up to his death, his wife had been lying comatose in a Los Angeles hospital, dying of cancer. It was while visiting her there that he exclaimed, at a certain point: "She is squeezing my hand!" He then stood up, had a heart attack, and died an hour later, at age 87. His wife of 66 years died 36 hours later. They are buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Buckminster Fuller
11960-488: The posting of margin with the counterparty . Any failure to post margin promptly would prompt the broker or counterparty to close the position. Short selling is a common practice in public securities, futures, and currency markets that are fungible and reasonably liquid . A short sale may have a variety of objectives. Speculators may sell short hoping to realize a profit on an instrument that appears overvalued, just as long investors or speculators hope to profit from
12090-400: The principles of science to solving the problems of humanity." From 1972 until retiring as university professor emeritus in 1975, Fuller held a joint appointment at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville , where he had designed the dome for the campus Religious Center in 1971. During this period, he also held a joint fellowship at a consortium of Philadelphia -area institutions, including
12220-495: The road at will, fly about, then, as deftly as a bird, settle back into a place in traffic". The Dymaxion car was a vehicle designed by Fuller, featured prominently at Chicago's 1933-1934 Century of Progress World's Fair. During the Great Depression , Fuller formed the Dymaxion Corporation and built three prototypes with noted naval architect Starling Burgess and a team of 27 workmen — using donated money as well as
12350-428: The rules on short selling "in an effort to stem the historic losses arising from the coronavirus pandemic". Worldwide, economic regulators seem inclined to restrict short selling to decrease potential downward price cascades. Investors continue to argue this only contributes to market inefficiency. A short seller typically borrows through a broker , who is usually holding the securities for another investor who owns
12480-470: The second and third prototypes, selling all three, dissolving Dymaxion Corporation and reiterating that the Dymaxion was never intended as a commercial venture. One of the three original prototypes survives, and two semi-faithful replicas have recently been constructed. The Dymaxion was included in the 2009 book Fifty Cars That Changed The World and was the subject of the 2012 documentary The Last Dymaxion . In 2008, The New York Times said Fuller "saw
12610-511: The securities; the broker himself seldom purchases the securities to lend to the short seller. The lender does not lose the right to sell the securities while they have been lent, as the broker usually holds a large pool of such securities for a number of investors which, as such securities are fungible, can instead be transferred to any buyer. In most market conditions there is a ready supply of securities to be borrowed, held by pension funds, mutual funds and other investors. To sell stocks short in
12740-514: The seemingly complex and hard-to-follow tactics of the practice, has made short selling a historical target for criticism. At various times in history, governments have restricted or banned short selling. The London banking house of Neal, James, Fordyce and Down collapsed in June 1772, precipitating a major crisis that included the collapse of almost every private bank in Scotland, and a liquidity crisis in
12870-399: The short , covering the position or simply covering . A short position can be covered at any time before the securities are due to be returned. Once the position is covered, the short seller is not affected by subsequent rises or falls in the price of the securities, for it already holds the securities that it will return to the lender. The process relies on the fact that the securities (or
13000-400: The short seller borrows an asset (often a security such as a share of stock or a bond ) and quickly selling it. The short seller must later buy the same amount of the asset to return it to the lender. If the market value of the asset has fallen in the meantime, the short seller will have made a profit equal to the difference. Conversely, if the price has risen then the short seller will bear
13130-399: The shorted shares. Unlike a dividend, voting rights cannot legally be synthesized and so the buyer of the shorted share, as the holder of record, controls the voting rights. The owner of a margin account from which the shares were lent agreed in advance to relinquish voting rights to shares during the period of any short sale. As noted earlier, victims of naked shorting sometimes report that
13260-465: The solution to his family's struggles on long walks around Chicago. During the autumn of 1927, Fuller contemplated suicide by drowning in Lake Michigan, so that his family could benefit from a life insurance payment. Fuller said that he had experienced a profound incident which would provide direction and purpose for his life. He felt as though he was suspended several feet above the ground enclosed in
13390-409: The stock (similar to additional dividend ) – for instance, put–call parity relationships are broken and the early exercise feature of American call options on non-dividend paying stocks can become rational to exercise early , which otherwise would not be economical. A naked short sale occurs when a security is sold short without borrowing the security within a set time (for example, three days in
13520-407: The stock market and placed additional downward pressure on prices. In response, a number of countries introduced restrictive regulations on short-selling in 2008 and 2009. Naked short selling is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset without first borrowing the security or ensuring that the security can be borrowed – it was this practice that was commonly restricted. Investors argued that it
13650-773: The subsequent inquest. The Dymaxion itself had rolled over and was badly damaged but was subsequently repaired by Fuller and Burgess. In the press, no mention was made that the Dymaxion had been involved in a two-car crash. Instead, the cause of the crash was attributed to the car's unconventional configuration: headlines in New York and Chicago read, "Freak car rolls over – killing famous driver – injuring international passengers". Fuller himself would later crash Prototype Two , with his only surviving daughter, Allegra (Allegra Fuller Snyder), aboard. Fuller received interest from Walter Chrysler , Henry Ford , and Henry Kaiser as well as companies including Packard , Studebaker and Curtiss-Wright . Chrysler said Fuller had "produced exactly
13780-531: The summer of 1959, Fuller was recruited by longtime friend Harold Cohen to serve as a research professor of "design science exploration" at the institution's School of Art and Design. According to SIU architecture professor Jon Davey, the position was "unlike most faculty appointments ... more a celebrity role than a teaching job" in which Fuller offered few courses and was only stipulated to spend two months per year on campus. Nevertheless, his time in Carbondale
13910-529: The tensional members. For half of a century, Fuller developed many ideas, designs, and inventions, particularly regarding practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. He documented his life, philosophy, and ideas scrupulously by a daily diary (later called the Dymaxion Chronofile ), and by twenty-eight publications. Fuller financed some of his experiments with inherited funds, sometimes augmented by funds invested by his collaborators, one example being
14040-568: The term "Dymaxion" is used in effect to signify a "radically strong and light tensegrity structure". One of Fuller's Dymaxion Houses is on display as a permanent exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan . Designed and developed during the mid-1940s, this prototype is a round structure (not a dome), shaped something like the flattened "bell" of certain jellyfish. It has several innovative features, including revolving dresser drawers, and
14170-568: The track like the other race cars. A highly publicized crash in Prototype One on October 27, 1933, occurred "virtually at the entrance to the Chicago Century of Progress World's Fair." The Dymaxion rolled over during the crash, killing its driver, Gulf employee Francis T. Turner, and seriously injuring its passengers: aviation pioneer (and noted spy) William Sempill and Charles Dollfuss , curator of France's first air museum. The cause of
14300-646: The true level of short interest. Borrow cost is the fee paid to a securities lender for borrowing the stock or other security. The cost of borrowing the stock is usually negligible compared to fees paid and interest accrued on the margin account – in 2002, 91% of stocks could be shorted for less than a 1% fee per annum, generally lower than interest rates earned on the margin account. However, certain stocks become "hard to borrow" as stockholders willing to lend their stock become more difficult to locate. The cost of borrowing these stocks can become significant – in February 2001,
14430-440: The tutelage of Arthur Penn , then a student at Black Mountain, Fuller broke through his inhibitions to become confident as a performer and speaker. At Black Mountain, with the support of a group of professors and students, he began reinventing a project that would make him famous: the geodesic dome . Although the geodesic dome had been created, built and awarded a German patent on June 19, 1925, by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld , Fuller
14560-483: The two major banking centres of the world, London and Amsterdam. The bank had been speculating by shorting East India Company stock on a massive scale, and apparently using customer deposits to cover losses. In another well-referenced example, George Soros became notorious for "breaking the Bank of England " on Black Wednesday of 1992, when he sold short more than $ 10 billion worth of pounds sterling . The term short
14690-526: The widely known geodesic dome ; carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their structural and mathematical resemblance to geodesic spheres. He also served as the second World President of Mensa International from 1974 to 1983. Fuller was awarded 28 United States patents and many honorary doctorates. In 1960, he was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal from The Franklin Institute . He
14820-673: The year of his death, Fuller described himself as follows: Guinea Pig B: I am now close to 88 and I am confident that the only thing important about me is that I am an average healthy human. I am also a living case history of a thoroughly documented, half-century, search-and-research project designed to discover what, if anything, an unknown, moneyless individual, with a dependent wife and newborn child, might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity that could not be accomplished by great nations, great religions or private enterprise, no matter how rich or powerfully armed. Fuller died on July 1, 1983, 11 days before his 88th birthday. During
14950-716: Was "extremely productive", and Fuller was promoted to university professor in 1968 and distinguished university professor in 1972. Working as a designer, scientist, developer, and writer, he continued to lecture for many years around the world. He collaborated at SIU with John McHale . In 1965, they inaugurated the World Design Science Decade (1965 to 1975) at the meeting of the International Union of Architects in Paris, which was, in Fuller's own words, devoted to "applying
15080-501: Was a Unitarian , and, like his grandfather Arthur Buckminster Fuller (brother of Margaret Fuller ), a Unitarian minister. Fuller was also an early environmental activist , aware of Earth's finite resources, and promoted a principle he termed " ephemeralization ", which, according to futurist and Fuller disciple Stewart Brand , was defined as "doing more with less". Resources and waste from crude, inefficient products could be recycled into making more valuable products, thus increasing
15210-525: Was a result of Fuller's exploration of nature's constructing principles to find design solutions. The Fuller Dome is referenced in the Hugo Award -winning novel Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner , in which a geodesic dome is said to cover the entire island of Manhattan , and it floats on air due to the hot-air balloon effect of the large air-mass under the dome (and perhaps its construction of lightweight materials). The Omni-Media-Transport: With such
15340-475: Was an American architect, systems theorist , writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist . He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more than 30 books and coining or popularizing such terms as " Spaceship Earth ", " Dymaxion " (e.g., Dymaxion house , Dymaxion car , Dymaxion map ), " ephemeralization ", " synergetics ", and " tensegrity ". Fuller developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, and popularized
15470-459: Was awarded United States patents. Fuller's patent application made no mention of Bauersfeld's self-supporting dome built some 26 years prior. Although Fuller undoubtedly popularized this type of structure he is mistakenly given credit for its design. One of his early models was first constructed in 1945 at Bennington College in Vermont, where he lectured often. Although Bauersfeld's dome could support
15600-557: Was connected with the Fullers' damp and drafty living conditions. This provided motivation for Fuller's involvement in Stockade Building Systems , a business which aimed to provide affordable, efficient housing. In 1927, at age 32, Fuller lost his job as president of Stockade. The Fuller family had no savings, and the birth of their daughter Allegra in 1927 added to the financial challenges. Fuller drank heavily and reflected upon
15730-542: Was designed for increased fuel efficiency and top speed, and its platform featured a lightweight hinged chassis, rear-mounted V8 engine , front-wheel drive (a rare RF layout), and three wheels . With steering via its third wheel at the rear (capable of 90° steering lock), the vehicle could steer itself in a tight circle, often causing a sensation. Fuller noted severe limitations in its handling, especially at high speed or in high wind, due to its rear-wheel steering (highly unsuitable for anything but low speeds) and
15860-467: Was elected an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1967, on the occasion of the 50-year reunion of his Harvard class of 1917 (from which he had been expelled in his first year). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968. The same year, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member. He became a full Academician in 1970, and he received
15990-493: Was expelled from Harvard twice: first for spending all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe, and then, after having been readmitted, for his "irresponsibility and lack of interest." By his own appraisal, he was a non-conforming misfit in the fraternity environment. Between his sessions at Harvard, Fuller worked in Canada as a mechanic in a textile mill , and later as a laborer in the meat-packing industry . He also served in
16120-495: Was in use from at least the mid-nineteenth century. It is commonly understood that the word "short" (i.e. 'lacking') is used because the short seller is in a deficit position with his brokerage house . Jacob Little , known as The Great Bear of Wall Street , began shorting stocks in the United States in 1822. Short sellers were blamed for the Wall Street Crash of 1929 . Regulations governing short selling were implemented in
16250-549: Was influenced by Alfred Korzybski 's idea of general semantics . In the 1950s, Fuller attended seminars and workshops organized by the Institute of General Semantics , and he delivered the annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture in 1955. Korzybski is mentioned in the Introduction of his book Synergetics . The two shared a remarkable amount of similarity in their general semantics formulations. In his 1970 book, I Seem To Be
16380-400: Was lead designer, architect, and engineer for both companies. Richard Lewontin , a new faculty member in population genetics at North Carolina State University, provided Fuller with computer calculations for the lengths of the domes' edges. Fuller began working with architect Shoji Sadao in 1954, together designing a hypothetical Dome over Manhattan in 1960, and in 1964 they co-founded
16510-432: Was steered via the third wheel at the rear, capable of 90° steering lock . Able to steer in a tight circle, the Dymaxion often caused a sensation, bringing nearby traffic to a halt. Shortly after launch, a prototype rolled over and crashed, killing the Dymaxion's driver and seriously injuring its passengers. Fuller blamed the accident on a second car that collided with the Dymaxion. Eyewitnesses reported, however, that
16640-549: Was that the strongest possible homogeneous truss is cyclically tetrahedral. He had become a guru of the design, architecture, and "alternative" communities, such as Drop City , the community of experimental artists to whom he awarded the 1966 "Dymaxion Award" for "poetically economic" domed living structures. Fuller was most famous for his lattice shell structures – geodesic domes , which have been used as parts of military radar stations, civic buildings, environmental protest camps, and exhibition attractions. An examination of
16770-536: Was the beginning of their lifelong friendship. Fuller taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1949, serving as its Summer Institute director in 1949. Fuller had been shy and withdrawn, but he was persuaded to participate in a theatrical performance of Erik Satie's Le piège de Méduse produced by John Cage , who was also teaching at Black Mountain. During rehearsals, under
16900-520: Was the weakness of financial institutions, not short-selling, that drove stocks to fall. In September 2008, the Securities Exchange Commission in the United States abruptly banned short sales, primarily in financial stocks, to protect companies under siege in the stock market. That ban expired several weeks later as regulators determined the ban was not stabilizing the price of stocks. Temporary short-selling bans were also introduced in
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