Looking at that short graph doesn't strike me as the shorts being particularly successfull at all, here's my take on it, I have broken it down into a few periods, let me know what you think.
Green box is a short posirion timeframe, orange is rough average for that period, red is share price movements.
From a perspective of the "shorts" as a general entity, obviously any individual short position could be successfull through a number of periods over the last year.
Box 1
Relatively high short position, constant share price appreciation = loss
Box 2
Low short position, slight shareprice depreciation = loss
Box 3
Rising short position off low base relatively low short position, sharp share price depreciation = i would count this as a loss as the shorts were relatively low on average at a point where the shareprice took its largest hit
Box 4
Relatively high short position, shareprice stays relatively stable = neutral
Box 5
Average short positions fair few unwinded after share price appreciates at the end of box 4, however the shareprice rises rapidly = neutral/ loss.
Overall the only good time for the shorts to have a relatively high short position was from the start of box 2 to the end of box 3 however this was pretty much the point at which the shorts were at their lowest.
