But isn't that assuming that the short is almost i

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But isn't that assuming that the short is almost immediately buying back -- covering on the drop caused by the short? I'm sure that's true for many of the real pros, but I'll bet a lot of bashers are hoping for a sizeable, extended drop.

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If you're shorting and don't know how to do it properly you'll be out of the game soon enough anyway. Even a moderate rise in stock price can get you a margin call and wipe you out. Cash on hand always. There may be some newbie investors out there like Tim Sykes followers who will try to short and lose their ass but they're playing around with modest sums. The ones that I mentioned in a previous post know how the game is played.

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Still say the max a short can gain on a short "investment" is 100%

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Since the fees charged are usually a small fraction of the stock price you can potentially gain more than 100%. Outside of hedge funds and guys like Andrew Left the smaller players are happy to make more modest sums and hit a company repeatedly.