at the turn of the tide...at first light , page-117

The daily short sales is a funny one I have been looking into.

There is no real co-relation between this and the net short sales report from ASIC.

I was questioning both ASX and ASIC on the subject last week.

The gross sales report from ASX does not take into account short covering, ASIC use a formula to report the net short position for the day unfortunately this is 3 days behind the action (blew out to 7 days last week).

What I am seeing in the data is that even when the gross daily is a couple of million the net short position is different, may go up or down by a different figure.

You expect that the daily gross report is simply cumulative in the ASIC report but it is not.

Why is this so?

Short sales during the day may be covered and ASX do not take this into account.

This IMO may be due to churn in the Algo's of the shorts or the fact that they short it during the day at price x and buy back at price y (lower).

Also the short sales are not required to be reported if they are below $100k according to the ASIC regulations.

I am also interested in naked short selling which is allowed in certain circumstances. Still deciphering the requirements.

Ie. If you buy LYC in the morning and sell in the afternoon you are naked short selling because the title has not been transferred to you (takes 3-5 days). You have the right to sell them though.

My data on this with relation to SP is not yet complete so when it is and I have some meaning that may be used to describe ssales and their effect on SP I may post it here for comment..

I would be looking at the cumulative short report from ASIC as it has the best informational qualities in relation to where the overall stock short sold is at.

Hope this helps.