Ann: Westpac announces $3.5 billion off-market share buy-back, page-378

I can feel the pains of the retail longs now seeing a new low . This means the price at the buyback date might be quite low making people even more hesitant to participate unless they have the fund to buy their replacement shares before the buyback date. I sell option puts to lock in the low price now and still feel a little heat. If it stays low, the chance is that the shares will be assigned albeit at an even lower price. That means a need for more cash to wait out this game being played by the shorts. At this level of dividend and profit, it's strange that the shorts are willing to short the bank shares. Unless they expect the long buying on margin lending to crash out to sink the share price further allowing the shorts to cover with a profit, I just don't see a good reason for shorting at this level. However, shorting CBA makes sense today. Let's wait till tomorrow to see the short interest for today on WBC to get a clear picture.

You've got to love it. This is more opportunity to lock in WBC shares at low prices. But you have to have cash handy to play on.