In the 3 trading days of the name change, which wo

In the 3 trading days of the name change, which would be the days that naked shorts had to cover because of the T+3 for trades to close, the volume was approximately 1.5 million shares higher than usual. I say "naked shorts had to cover" because as I have posted before, the compliance officer in the national brokerage that I use confirmed to me what I had read in articles online -- which is that when a company changes its name and thus its CUSIP, no action is necessary by legal short position holders. Their short position is merely transferred to the new CUSIP, the way everyone's long shares are transferred. It is the ILLEGAL naked shorts that have to cover.

So, that 1.5 million extra volume would probably include some daytraders who decided to go long and hop on board for a quick ride up, but in my opinion, because the average daily volume had been so much lower and CTIX/IPIX is not on most people's radar, I suspect that most of that extra 1.5 million was naked positions being closed. And, of course, later re-opened under the new CUSIP.