if you buy a stock, you could come out arbitrarily well-off, but your losses are limited to the amount you put in
You never only buy, but at the same time you have traded your dollars, euros or whatever currency for that stock.
There is nothing like "buying" and "shorting" - it's always trading. Swapping two "currencies".
So I can trade one currency for another, and then trade back, and the amount I now have in the first currency can be arbitrarily high. This doesn't feel like it particularly changes anything.
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.