big vol on fmg today, page-2

Big volume indeed on friday.

17,826,134 traded, but 10,933,627 was short related volume, (http://www.asx.com.au/data/shortsell.txt) a massive amount, considering total open shorts has ranged between 15 mil to 22 mil since the 16th of June. (http://www.asic.gov.au/short-position-reports)

That friday short volume was 61.33% of the day's trade.

I have yet to find out whether the daily shortsell data from the ASX includes short trade closing volume, we will find out in a couple of days, when the short position data is released for last friday the 8th, if the cumulative positions jump by approx 10 mil, then the daily data is short opening volume only. I will be keen to find out the answer to this question, as that is a lot of stock shorted in one go if that is what happened on friday.

Currently FMG is 127th on the list of 524 stocks that are currently shorted considering % of issued stock shorted (0.63% 5/07/2010) that ranking may change if that 10 mill was all short openings.

If it was mostly shorts being closed, which we will find out when the data is released in a couple of days, this will be a positive for the share price short term most likely. It is likely they were primarily closing trades, as the stock did not fall substantially on friday.