The confusion seems to be around when shorters sell. They sell immediately, they do not hold the shares.
Shorters borrow shares and sell them pretty much immediately. They later have to buy shares to repay the original loan.
Shorters make money when the share price goes down, allowing them to repay the loan by buying shares at a lower price than they previously sold them at.
Your example is correct. There will currently be shorters who borrowed, and sold, BrainChip shares at $1, they are (as you correctly say) currently sitting on a 20% loss. The important point is that their loan has an expiry date (typically only a few days long) at which time they will be forced to buy shares to pay the loan off. That‘s when they get burned—they are forced to make a loss.
Short selling is quite a difficult concept to get your mind around.
Hey Slymeat, I disagree with some of what you've said, they wouldn't need to sell straight away, although it would be advantageous of them to do so, especially if they want to create downward pressure and momentum.
I think they "could" wait for a market correction, which happen regularly and certainly more often, than any Company news.
So the odds there, are stacked in their favor.
Their loans don't really have expiry dates, unless they become too far out of the money and the broker forces the position to be closed out.
Something we may see soon, with the trapped shorters under 90 cents..