First of all, before I answer, let’s make sure we understand something … there is no such thing as a non-levered short position. By definition, all “shorting” involves borrowing an asset you do not own so that you can sell it, with the hope of buying it back at a lower price later and returning it to whom you borrowed it from (generally a broker). Shorting = leverage. That said, the challenge in the question (besides that it requires an investor to take it leverage and much greater risk than what trades are pre-paid for with one’s own money up front) is that it presupposes “missing healthy fundamentals” means stock prices will go down – and it simply doesn’t. Fundamentals may come to the fray later. Markets may go a long, long time without caring. Another company could buy a weak fundamental company (for a variety of reasons) and rip the face off of a short. I could go on and on and not give a thousand examples, but many thousands. Even if the desired short truly reflects something irrational, as one of my least favorite economists once astutely said, “markets can stay irrational longer than you can solvent.”