@Hosujan it can be hard to get one's head around this concept of...

@Hosujan it can be hard to get one's head around this concept of shorting....and I for one have only done it once...and using CFD's to do it on Tesla shares (and got somewhat burnt doing it !! needed to come up with 10% margin and the rest..90% $value was borrowed from the CFD provider and daily interest paid on it at I think 6%pa)
But basically its the reverse of buying shares (going long) so its selling shares in a company, except if done via the ASX, a person has to find a willing lender of "their" shares in that company (who will charge fees and daily interest and have an enforceable contract with the borrower that states that he must return X number of shares in XYZ company to the lender basically on demand or at least by a certain date) Of course the problem with "going short" is that your profit is limited (share value can only go to zero) BUT your losses are unlimited/infinity, and you are paying the lender interest and fees for "the privilege"
Anyways, it is hard to tell who may be lending out their shares, because my understanding is (and I would like to be corrected) but the lender remains the beneficial owner of those shares (even though they are on-sold by the borrower on market) or at least their is no obligation for them to declare a change in substantial holding unless their is a change in more than 1% of their holding. So if numerous entities (instos/fund managers/ETFs/BEOTs) are allowing lending of their shares then no declaration of change occurs, and if the lending out is for shorter durations eg <1month then pretty sure little/no change occurs at the Share Registry level as well. The process is usually just churned, "the shorter" just buys shares on-market and returns them to the lender at an agreed time, then just re-borrows them almost immediately under a new contract. These shorters probably include fund managers who call themselves hedge funds and/or Long-Short Funds....they have a Portfolio Manager who stands by his ideas/conviction/beliefs that a certain company or industry is overvalued/has problems/the industry fundamentals are negative and then stands by that belief (often come hell or highwater) and shortsells and continues to do so to the limit of his finances/trading limits/risk strategy. When they get it right (and close out their position at a profit ie buy back same number of shares sold at a much lower price than originally shorted at) they get paid massive bonuses by the fund investors, when they have obviuosly outperformed their benchmark. Alot of shorters are traders in the Investment Banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bof Am, UBS, Mitsubishi, Macquarie just to name a few, as well as trading desk of Stockbrokers.
I'm told reliably by my online broker that my millions shares in ARU are not on-lent.....but I still have my doubts.
My opinion is that in Australia we should only allow company shares who are in the ASX200 to only be short sold and then only up to a certain % eg 10%.
All IMHO.
I have the feeling that shortselling is a very "closed industry" .... yes almost mafia-like and the players don't ever talk about it publicly as they don't want it exposed for the rort/manipulation that it is in Oz, and just like to go with the line that "it/shorting increases market liquidity" Unfortunately in the sub $1.5bil MC company it can technically destroy them, as I see some concerted/sustained shorting coming from institutions/maybe even foreign entities or semi-gov entities as a means of forcing down the price/value of a company in order to negotiate a better deal in a Placement/Capital Raise that they have been wanting to get in for a while, because they know the prospects of that company are really good and they want to get in at a ground floor price when basically the company has been de-risked (by the loyal longterm shareholders, with all the previous CR/SPPs over many years, when basically the company was not on their radars, but now is) It is market/price manipulation in order to get hold of more shares at the lowest price possible (without sending the company bankrupt) but forcing the company to raise New Capital at ludicrously low prices with therefore longer term holders getting their share value diluted as the New Capital comes with New Shares in a Placement or Converting Preference Shares or Debt that can convert to Shares at lowball prices sometime in the future.......
...SO my conclusion fellow Hot Copperinos.... that is exactly what is happening here with ARU .... ARU needs further capital doesn't matter which way you look at it, whether it is equity (share placements/SPP/hopefully non-Renounceable Entitlement Offer eg 1 new share for every 4 held) or Debt (ECA, Hyundai directly or HancockP which will likely have an option (lender's choice) for the repayments to be repaid as shares as some lowball conversion price, usually a SP at the time of negotiating the loan) hence the benefit for pushing the SP down to these levels. Yes, maybe it is an entity such as HP.....past form would suggest such (LTR, Vulcan), maybe also a reason HP refrained from nominating a new Board member at this years AGM (after ECE BOD departure and HP having a 10% shareholding and SHOULD HAVE nominated a candidate for the Board, if they wanted to have management push a little harder with finalising OTs/Finance/Govt funding.)
Of course continually forcing the price lower also triggers many Retail Holders into selling their shares to the shorters (who are wanting to ultimately go long) due to stop losses/margin calls/panic/trading charts/loss of interest or excitement and the basic need to recycle their limited capital into new opportunities because they gotta trade.
Apologies for the long ramble..... if you read this far good luck to you and your trading future..... I personally believe shorting should be banned for shares of companies outside the ASX200.
FYI My lower back's improving.....slowly but surely

All IMVHO, DYOR (cause I have), GLTA(patient)LTH "Build it they will come for more" LTH over 1.0mil but less than 5.0 mil shares.