No one is saying that the daily FINRA number means
Post# of 72440
We DO NOT KNOW what the mixture of those 3 kinds of short sales might be.
However, we DO know that the number for IPIX has varied from 7% to 78%, which I have witnessed, and it's possible the range is even greater than that.
No one has given a good explanation for why that number has varied so much.
There certainly is some short selling, as evidenced from the bi-monthly FINRA reported legal short position number of 1.2 million. We do not know if some short sellers are gaming that number by covering their legal shorts, and then re-shorting after the record date. We only know that 1.2 million is the number that are short on THAT ONE DATE.
It is absurd to say that anyone knows exactly what the daily number means. All we know is that it varies from 7-78%, and that has to mean something.
I do not agree that one post a day reporting that number in any way scares off buyers. If it did, why did we have the huge volume we had yesterday?
LET'S STOP ARGUING ABOUT THIS. AlanC has a right to report the number, which many of us find interesting. Sox has the right to present his opinion that the number is meaningless. Let's leave it at that, because no one is going to change his mind about this.
In my opinion, posting a rebuttal to Alan's number every day is absolutely counterproductive to the premise that the number scares people, because it brings much more attention to that number than it would have otherwise.