so, in order to cut down admin costs the work of bros 1 & 2 has...

so, in order to cut down admin costs the work of bros 1 & 2 has been combined into a multitasking short / long algorithmic wizard.. we can call him bro 3...
bro 3 buys 20 million longs and at the same time sells 20 million short .. this is a great way to milk the punters on admin fees but there can be no extra profit ...
so our clever little friend becomes a stock picker and sells an extra 20 million and we have 40 million short / 20 million long.. so now there is the chance of a bigger profit provided the SP goes down ..
to aid this process (and this is the clever bit) bro 3 announces to the market he is 40 million short ..
some would call this market transparency, I would call it market duplicity because as we know he is only 20 million short and what he is actually doing is market signalling (inflating his short position) and thereby trying to create a downward trend in the SP...

so three conclusions:
a big thank you to kick it for exposing this racquet
an understanding of why sometime ago when I was advocating for market transparency on short positions, tutor (I think it was) said that this information would not help me all that much ..
and DW was right when he said the shorts were a nuisance at worst, but albeit a useful one as they gave us all the opportunity to buy some cheaper shares but that the

oh and anyone who thinks that a hedge fund through stock picking can over the long term (5-10 years) outdo a passive EFT based on the ASX200 is either a gambler and or a touch delusional
as every fund out there touting for business and claiming 10% returns over the past whatever years will also state in their blurb (usually at the bottom and in very small print) .. past performance is no guarantee of future returns...