Shorters work by borrowing stocks with a promise to repay them at a lower price. It only works on margin accounts, where the stocks weren't paid by cash to start with. Credit accounts.
They don't issue pseudo shares, they can't fabricate more shares than are available, but they can't eat into the AS, as far as I know, because they can only short stocks that are already sold. (You can't 'borrow' a stock that has not yet been sold.)
So, when all stocks are sold, as now, shorting has a hayday. If you sell, you play into their game because you are accepting lower than you wanted returns. That is a personal decision, but it is driven by what you read about the stock - not about the company necessarily, nor about how it is doing, but what the STOCK is doing which is what THEY are doing to the stock.
I don't think shorters can beat you unless you cave to their antics. You should know why you buy a stock, and hang onto it until you are forced to make a decisions about what to do with it. But that decision should be based on the company, not what is happening to the stock price by those that have the ability to change it, even if only slightly.
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