If the shorters were going to go hard anytime soon, it would...

If the shorters were going to go hard anytime soon, it would have been yesterday with the general market weakness. Virtually no short sales.

Total short positions reported on 16/2/22 started to tick down. Some prudent buying by shorters to unwind positions at these low prices, without geeing the price up too much. Probably buying up as much as they can in the auctions so as to control the impact on the price. Volume is up a little in a skittish market, holding the SP up more than you would otherwise expect for a speccy like MSB.

This all suggests to me the shorters feel overexposed and not in a hurry to increase their positions, although they'll be waiting for a CR to substantially unwind, hoping big time something doesn't come out of left field like a takeover offer or big JV announcement! Now that WOULD put a cat among the shorter pigeons! My feeling is that the risk is far higher for the shorts than the longs atm - but DYOR.