I'll bet that Hedge Funds love the herd mentality of individual investors in stocks that have crashed. I think that most sitting on a loss sell when they get back to even which holds the price down. They fall quickly, but rebound slowly (except for the great names that everybody, fund managers especially, want to own). Personally, I can't stomach going short. I take on enough risk with margin.
An investment that falls 50% has to go up 100% to get back to even.
Buy high, sell low, is how smart money takes retail money every time