Given that there were 1.5 million shares more than usual traded in the 3 days after the CUSIP change, and that the reported legal short interest was about the same before and after the change, that is consistent with 1.5 million naked short shares being covered.

That's speculation, because NO ONE KNOWS what the naked short position is if there is one, or what the actual legal short interest is, because the legal short is only reported twice a month and the figure can be manipulated easily by covering and re-shorting so that the short trade has not closed as of the record date for the legal short number.There is NO reason not to report the legal short interest every day -- it's not like there are clerks with green eyeshades laboriously calculating it. It could be done easily if they wanted to -- but they don't want to.

It is tiresome and futile to try to draw conclusions from nebulous numbers that we know are not accurate, and based on assumptions that may or may not be correct. All you have to do is enter a buy order and see it NOT show up on the so-called Level 2 to realize that numbers are manipulated by market makers.

This kind of speculation is futile.