Running discussion on SP, page-3057

If this share has been significantly shorted “under the radar”, I think that any shorters still around would be getting very nervous. Today’s price action alone would be enough but there is also that statement by Nigel in that AFR article about our two MOU Chinese companies completing their due diligence with AVZ hoping to have a decision from them in late April about moving forward. If diligence was completed by the end of April, we may be very close to an announcement.

Some have posted ShortMan data to dispel the short attack theories. ShortMan obtains its data from ASIC which is the regulatory body responsible for monitoring short selling on the ASX. ASIC openly admits that ..

“… we are unable to verify the accuracy of all individual reports submitted to ASIC, nor to verify that all short sellers in our market (both in Australia and overseas) are lodging reports.”

As others have alluded to on HC, there may also be methods used by brokers to “hide” short transactions by trading with more than one entity.

Some very experienced investors are convinced that AVZ has been shorted into a sharp decline. If that is true, the end of the shorting will see an increase in the share price with the covers. If it has been significantly shorted, we could see some nice upward movement over the next week or so. Either way, fundamentals have never been better and we could be very close to an announcement about offtake and/or investment from the two Chinese companies, so I am a solid hold.