For the purposes of this discussion, and related to Z Smith's excellent post: "Paulson" isn't an individual, nor is it just the firm Paulson. It really refers to anyone who purchased stock and/or obtained warrants via any of the Paulson raises over the years or the warrant exercise incentive programs. (This is a lot of people and a lot of shares).

Substantially all of those shares have a "restrictive legend" on them, which requires them to be marked as a short sale, even though the person owns the shares. There is a time process to "clean the shares", hence they are not delivered immediately and are considered short.

There have been hundreds of millions of shares created like this over the years. So a very substantial amount of the selling is marked "short."

My long-winded point is that "Paulson" represents much more than an individual or a firm.