With the delayed 'short reports' these only include shorts at closing right? What about those added in the morning and taken off before closing. Assuming these don't get captured in the reports?
"Borrowing" a stock is something that has never sat right with me. Imagine if someone borrowed your car (or your wife) without your permission or knowledge and bought it back all smashed up. Where I come from there's a name for that
If you want to bet against the price find someone who will write a put contract.
Australia is a very small market with limited opportunity. ASIC or whoever should really consider banning shorting except for perhaps the top 50 market caps. Otherwise it's going to end up that no one will invest in ASX companies. Who's even going to want to list their company here, if the SP can be manipulated down 50% with little effort.
The other consideration is venture capital is virtually non existent here compared to the US venture networks.
Anyway my $0.02
(20min delay)