Notorious 'shock jock' investor complains about being cyberbullied after Reddit spoils his short selling

Andrew Left, a notorious short seller and founder of Citron Research, complained in an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week about being cyberbullied after a group of Reddit users spoiled his plans to short shares of video game retailer GameStop.

According to WSJ's sources, Left is feeling distraught after hackers "shared his personal information, hacked into Mr. Left's social-media accounts and texted Mr. Left and his two children, using threatening, profane and personal language."

"It makes you feel vulnerable," Left told the Journal. "We live in a world where we're all exposed and people don't understand boundaries."

However, Left himself is no stranger to conflict.

In a 2015 WSJ profile of Left, the Beverly Hills-based investor is described as "the shock jock of short sellers" who is known for authoring "reports laced with profanity, vivid anatomical descriptions and taunts directed at corporate executives."

Short sellers make money by placing bets that a company's share price is overvalued, which means that they are only successful if a company fails.

This process involves borrowing shares from investors, selling the shares, then buying them back at a later date when their price has significantly dropped.

However, if a company's share price increases by the time they have to give shares back to their original investors, then the short seller can lose massive sums of money, which is what happened to Left's attempt to short GameStop.

Left told the WSJ that he's been disturbed at the zeal smaller investors have shown in blowing up his trades.

"It's extreme capitalism gone wild," he said. "We're a nation of gamblers."