to nbards and kor187;
Shorting is practised with a hope the shares will drift lower. It is practised by brokers borrowing shares from institutional holders in order to sell them today hoping to purchase them tomorrow at a lower price, then return them to their original owner and pocketing the difference. I believe the borrowing time frame is only three days but I suppose it can be rolled over.
Apologists of this legal practice, say it is a valid means of profiting from an impending downturn in a companies fortunes.
Antagonists say, it is a means of dragging a shareprice down, purely for the sake of the same shorters (sellers) who then buy at the bottom and profit from the inevitable rebound.
My personal disposition is with the latter, thinking it manipulative and destructive. However ASIC accedes to this practice.
Though some patterns can be observed, it is very difficult to discern patterns of price manipulation through shorting, though the practice exists. However it is too obscure to be certain about it and sometimes the shorters get caught out.
So from this practice by the large broking houses, all the little guy can do is try and monitor published short positions in companies, to try and get some grasp of the degree of shorting occurring, to try and gain some sense of price direction. But is is no guarantee all the same.
The points raised previously are attempts at trying to get some accurate data on the short positions of AVQ. The accuracy is unclear. We are somewhat adrift.
