An investor borrows shares of stocks from brokers that they believe will decrease in value. The investor sells the shares to the buyers who will pay the market price of those shares. Here, the investor does not own the stock. The broker will lend you the stock to short sell. You sell the borrowed stock at a higher price and buy back the same number of shares at a lower price. The difference in the price will be your profit. After selling the stock, if the price rises instead of falling, you have to square off the trade at a loss.