Short a security / long a security; short sale

[toygekko]

Could anybody who's interested in the capital markets and knows a bit about language please elaborate on the etymology of the expressions in the title of this thread? For example, I've always wondered whether to be "long" a security is modelled on being "short" one or vice versa. Any language-sensitive trader (or EMH fan, for that matter ) out there? Thanks, in advance!

 

[berndf]

Moved to etymology forum.

 

[berndf]

I would assume it is a natural extension of the meaning short = having insufficient amount of something as in I ran short of time. According to etymonline, this meaning has been attested as of 1690.

 

[toygekko]

Right. The thing is, I wasn't familiar with the use of "long" to mean "a lot of". As a result, I erroneously conjectured that the expression "to be long sth" was limited to the turn of phrase "to be long a stock", itself being a kind of "back formation" from "to be short of sth". Peeking into a dictionary and seeing telltale confusion on the part of other posters, I swiftly rejected my conjecture.