Hi and welcome to HC.
Short answers:
1 Kind of but not necessarily...it has a legitimate side and a dark side..you're referring to the darkside and that gets a yes.
2 Shortman shows the percentage of a particular ASX stock ibeing shorted but there is a 4 day delay before the ASX releases the data Shortman uses
3 Shorting is a big subject and there are many ways of looking at the subject. There is an entire thread dedicated to it but I'm working from a phone and will post the link when I'm on a PC. Like I said good side bad side. When you see institutional shorting i.e. high percentage then usually means manipulation os in place to drive price down to scare shareholders into selling their shares (tree shake/ trembling hands)
My concern is not with shorting as a legitimate bet that a share price is about to fall. It's when it is used to manipulate a share price that concerns me. I consider that fraud. Problem is it never gets prosecuted. Why? Because ASIC doesn't have the resources....pathetic as that sounds...it's true.
Anyway...here's a oldish article about the dark side of short:ing but pretty good I reckon: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/2...w-the-big-players-manipulate-the-stock-market
Dont think its all gloom and doom. The bright side is usually when the insto has filled up on a good stock they may reverse there position voluntarily or squeezed out of the position and start supporting the stock...complicated isn't it?
Then with the demand ratio your referring to technical analysis (T/A) a super huge subject. Specifically when I speak of demand/supply I am looking at market depth. It tells me what buyers and sellers are doing at a point in time. It is dynamic ie continually changing. You can see for example how many shares are on the market for sale and what price is being asked at the time. Also what the sellers want. It is only one of hundreds of indicators and every investor will find what tools suit them. Like I said it's a huge subject. Then you have fundamental analysis that's the other super huge side of learning about shares. I tend to call T/A qualitative research and F/A quantitative tesearch. I think it's best to learn as much of both as you can...in your time of course.
The point is you are at the commencement of a journey. What you and I don't know is way more than what we do know. I am also a newby but Im an old newby and have skill sets unique to me that allow me to know how little I actually do know. But I learn a little more every day.
The best thing is that I found HC and there are many good people on this site and many well...not so good. You have to read a lot to learn and develop your own style of trading. You need to learn the lingo and understand concepts. Not so easy....don't jump into anýthing too quickly. Dont rely on any paticular post or poster. Even the most experienced and honest of the Gurus can and do get it wrong. But first you need to learn enough to distinguish between genuine posters and those with a selfisg sgenda. It takes a while...it's what's called getting away from the "noise".
So good luck on the journey....remember your money...your risk...you just have to arm yourself patiently with knowledge research and experience.
Also as its your first post... it's probably better to post big questions without referring to specific posters ....then anybody who feels they can answer the question can throw in a view.
At times you will find silence but usually you will find that someone jumps in straight away and helps out...saved my butt a couple of times I can tell you. Like I said there are many terrific helpful genuine people on HC and I applaud each and every one of them.
If anyone wants to add to this response please feel welcome...like I said Im working off a phone here!
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