GXY should wait until the shorters get carried away again, (this...

GXY should wait until the shorters get carried away again, (this is nothing in terms of total capital btw currently). Then perform a massive share buy-back and just annihilate the shorts and squeeze them out.

This will, however, never happen, as the shorts are LARGE funds, probably your superannuation funds / large investment banks etc. that actively conspire against your own holdings. They are also the ones that may potentially fund GXY in future (but in reality most never do). Shorts know this, and they are treated with kid-gloves in the market, market darlings that create churn for the brokers/banks.

Consolidation did zero to chase away the shorters, they have made far too much money here to leave anytime soon. This is still evident with almost every announcement causing a sell-off.

Shorting is also very overrated, what you often are seeing, is manipulation on low-volume days, this is particularly evident just before/after public holidays when no-one is active. This is the work of traders. If people don't step up and buy, they are free to drop the price 50%.. but eventually someone steps up and buys value. Their hope is they can flush you out and take your shares cheaply. Putting a load of shares on the sell side at a high price to artificially inflate the buy/sell ratio is also a classic, these are often pulled if approached when share is cheap.