Your making a number of assumptions. Have a look at shortman. BRN shorted positions rose in Aug 22 from 4.5% to over 6% by Sep 22 where the SP was in the 80's-90's.By Nov - Dec the SP dropped to the 60's-70s. Notice the big flash drop of short percentages in late Dec 22 4.3% just for a couple of days and also notice the flash rise in SP around the same time .. I am assuming that the lenders of the share have a sunset clause. a return-date for borrowed shares and most shorters closed before this date. Obviously borrowers in Nov and Dec would have a different return date clause.
So after the sunset clause (after banking profits) then re-borrowed back the shares they returned and sold to back over 6% shorted to start the whole process over again. They have been effectively shorting the whole time just with the occasional break.
The 31st of May drop could have been another sunset clause return date down to 5.7% from above 6% and then straight back up again reaching 7% soon after. From Jan to May they banked some profits again with the SP from the 60's down to the 40's.
With the SP in the 30's I suspect that they are not worried in the least.
So A borrows and then returns when forced by the return-date clause and then A re-borrows again. The lender's fee's. some sort of hedging, or for tax reasons must be enough to cover the decline of the SP. If they were not making money out of the process as well. they would just refuse to lend out the shares.
Once the fortunes of BRN change in earnest then I don't put it past the lenders to institute a squeeze on the current shorters to take back a slab of their profits.
When is the question?
Just my opinions, DYOR
cheers Lies
BRN Price at posting:
32.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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