"I think this is shorting is over stated for CYP - what is the current overall net shorting position?Something like 0.02% of CYP's shares - that's nothing!"There is definitely something. The volume is not the issue. What is important is the price and the intentions.
Normally, the purpose behind shorting a stock is to earn profits selling when they are overvalued and buying back when the price has fallen to a more "realistic level". In that case, the shorters are served by doing large volume (up to the point where the trade becomes "crowded" and there is a risk of being squeezed out.) If CYP was being shorted for trading profits, yes, the volume is trivial.
That is not what we are looking at in this case.
What I think that what we are seeing is stock shorted to suppress the prices used to calculate VWAP. In this case, the shorters intention is not served by trading large volume. Quite the opposite. They only have to do enough to keep the price down and given that these trades are doomed to loose money when a Deed of Arrangement or take over is announced, it is best that they are as few in number as possible.
Thus far they have been very efficient.
(Excuse me while I adjust my tin foil hat...
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