GUARANTEED MONEY 💰: Shorting RSU's to hedge against drop?

Hi everyone, I'm here to propose a new idea - I haven't seen this on Blind or anywhere else.

I've seen a lot of speculation about stock volatility being a factor in not going to a company, for example, Snap and Robinhood.

What if you took a short position at the exact amount your RSU's are issued at to hedge against a fall? This would basically guarantee you get the amount of RSU's you are issued, whether they go up 10x, down 10x, or stay the same.

Here's an example that's simple to get the point across:

Join Company A and get issued 100k stock to vest in a year.
Let's assume shares are 1k each - so you get 100 shares.

Invert the stock by shorting Company A by 100k, expires in a year.
So you borrow 100 shares, need to pay back 100 shares eoy. You get 100k worth of shares now that you can sell immediately - which you do.

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Scenario 1 - Company A goes down 50% - each share is $500:
You get 100 shares of stock vested eoy - valued at 50k now instead of 100k.
You lost 50k from RSU's.

You pay back 100 shares to your short position, which is now only worth 50k.
You pocket the 50k you gain from the beginning of the year - you gained 50k.

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Scenario 2 - Company A goes up 100% - each share is $2000:
You get 100 shares of stock vested eoy - valued at 200k now instead of 100k.
You gained 100k from RSU's.

You pay back 100 shares to your short position, which is now worth 200k.
You paid 100k for these shares at the beginning - you lose 100k.

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Scenario 3 - Company A is flat 0% - each share is still $1000:
You get 100 shares of stock vested eoy - valued at 100k still.
You gain 0k from RSU's.

You pay back 100 shares to your short position, which is still worth 100k.
You pay the same amount that you borrow - gain 0k.

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So in every scenario, you gain the amount that your RSU's were promised, minus the small fee for borrowing money from your short position.

Although the upside is limited, so is the downside, as this is essentially a risk-free RSU.
Additionally - your RSU's vest IMMEDIATELY. The money from your short position becomes your RSU in cash - you can pay the short position back once your RSU's vest no matter what way the stock moves.

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Conclusion:
From what I can tell, this seems to be a great strategy to hedge all risk for your 1 RSU grant and vest immediately. For example, if I worked at Snap right now I would use this strategy and use the money from the short to immediately invest in some index funds instead of 100% of it directly into Snap.

#investment