Is short selling really a problem for BRU ?

Seeing most of the  threads that I post on inevitably get derailed with false allegations that I am short seller of BRU which I am not and never have been - Lets  give the topic its own thread and have a look at the facts .

Short selling which is stock borrowing ( to sell stock you do not own ) that is not using CFD,s Minis or other derivative products - requires 2 parties - a stock borrower and a stock lender - Most stock lenders require a $50k minimum borrow limit -

Clearly a shipload of dollar$$$ was made shorting BRU from its highs over the last few years - There was around 20m shares short sold on BRU when it was trading around $2 - currently there are only 5.5m shorts -  importantly that number is only 1.6% of the total shares on issue - For comparison the number 100 top shorted stock has 2.9% shorted and the number 4 shorted stock BAL which tanked 43% on Friday had 13% of the total shares short sold - Clearly some very happy short punters on that one.

https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/33940

extract from above link -


"In this week’s Buy Hold Sell we examine five of the most shorted stocks on the ASX. All five of these stocks have over 11% of their register sold short. Traders short sell to benefit if the price subsequently falls, so a large short position can represent a widely held negative view. The most shorted stock on the market is Myer, with over 16.6% sold short"

So BRU clearly doesn't have a large number of shorts so even those who have a negative view of the company dont see any high reward V risk in shorting BRU at current prices - Conversely the shorts have been virtually unchanged fluctuating between 5m and 6m for all of 2016 - that number of shares could have been covered over that length of time easily at a VWAP below 24c.

Why haven they been covered ? research short hedging - also take on board over 6m shares were covered off market after the last general cap raise - Research party to party lending .

BRU is 19c because the company is not releasing regular updates to market about what it is no doubt doing behind the scenes - Market is bored with the stock - Its not making any $$$ pumping oil currently so the market is discounting that from its valuation - The big driver for future growth is the gas play but political  uncertainty surrounds the fracking debate.

Allegations of posters shorting and other nefarious accusations are just diversionary tactics by company apologists trying to transfer blame for obvious under performance of the share price - all ( IMO ) DYOR