Just getting back to the topic of those shorters: The days of...

Just getting back to the topic of those shorters:

The days of the good old short-covering rallies are long gone, I suspect.

Now they can cover their shorts on market using algorithmic bots and HFT without pushing the SP up, they can cover on other markets (Chi-X, Canada, etc), they can cover off market completely in what are known as Dark Pools, and in general, they can wangle it pretty much any way they like.

I doubt we'll see another one of those short-covering panic runs like we used to see in the good old days, before bots, HFT, dark pools, etc.

Interesting read, here - about half way down the page - on Dark Pools etc:

http://insights.unimelb.edu.au/vol14/01_comerton-forde.html