Short position with private knowledge, obtaining debt pledges - sneaky! (9)
I believe the answer is:
insidious
'sneaky' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'short position with private knowledge obtaining debt pledges' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'knowledge' could be 'id' (id is a kind of knowledge) and 'id' is located in the answer.
'debt' could be 'iou' (I owe you, a promise to pay a debt) and 'iou' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for insidious that I've seen before include "Stealthy and damaging" , "deceptively attractive" , "Slowly having a harmful effect" , "Proceeding subtly but harmfully" , "Gradually harmful" .)