Speculators have borrowed shares and sold them. They have to...

Speculators have borrowed shares and sold them. They have to purchase shares to repay the owners. As of last Friday the number of shares the speculators have to buy was 104,880,703.

During the ASX 200 rebalance last week the speculators did manage to reduce the amount owed by 25,000,000 but 80% of the trading volume was bought by someone else.

Some speculators are gambling that a capital raise will be required before their is a material announcement. The amount of money paid to their spruikers is minimal in comparison the money they have at risk. eg 4DS went up 500% after validation.