new shorts on that day dec 23 = 581,734 no of shares =...

new shorts on that day dec 23 = 581,734
no of shares = 185,713,004
% of total no of shares = .31%
this its how I see it.On Dec 23 there were 2.88m transactions ie buys and sells.
Of these 581,734 transactions were sales from shares lent by institutions to shorters and sold on market probably for around $20
From memory the price went up about 5% on that day so despite all the short sellers, there were more buyers than sellers on that day I'd say.
these shorters will then get set hoping for some bad news that will push the price down below $21 to say $17.
Once there they will buy the shares back and make a profit of $4
The act of buying will in turn probably put upward pressure on the price.
But I guess, for everyone who sells thinking the price will down there will be someone who buys thinking a share price will go up.
In fact the next day the price actually did rise another couple of %, so more investors thought the price would rise than those who sold. Those shorters that sold 581,734 for around $20 might be in the red as we speak and there could be quite a few bargain hunters in the coming days that might push the price up even further.
That is my understanding of it, but could be wrong.