Assume I have 100 USD and 0 BTC with BTC/USD at 47. BTC/USD drops from 47 to 46. I still have 100 USD and 0 BTC. How did I profit in USD terms on this price move?
sorry if I sound like a teacher, but have you studied the financial markets a bit before thinking about shorting bitcoins?
you even seem to imply you can make money without doing any single trade (if I understand your post well)
My point is that you have to specify a unit of account. If you specify USD as the unit of account and your money is in USD then you will not profit if BTC/USD declines. If you specify BTC as the unit of account and your money is in USD then you will profit if BTC/USD declines because you could convert your USD to more BTC at the lower exchange rate. Right now, I'm looking for ways to profit in USD terms if BTC/USD declines.