The bears had to buy stock for as much as 40 to deliver the shares they had sold for less than 30. Even worse, it appears that Vanderbilt and his friends may have “cornered” the market by buying up the available supply (the new stock had yet to be issued). When caught without shares to deliver, the bears had to pay the buyers heavily to get out of their contracts. Thus Vanderbilt made money by buying shares that didn’t even exist.
