The Brains Trust, page-35

It will be a reporting error, happens all the time......it is basically a voluntary code, however ASIC will 'give guidance' to any individual or group who repeatedly submit late reports, or reports in error.

A few years back another HC member and I spent considerable time (months) studying the Daily short sales reported by the ASX and comparing them to the short interest numbers reported by ASIC.
These reporting errors are pretty common, and usually sort themselves out over time.

Note the disclaimer on the ASIC website-
It is important to note that ASIC’s aggregated short position reports are reliant on the accuracy of reports we receive from individual short sellers. While we will monitor compliance with short position reporting and provide additional guidance where necessary, we are unable to verify the accuracy of all individual reports submitted to ASIC, nor to verify that all short sellers in our market (both in Australia and overseas) are lodging reports.

If you want to follow it more closely, put together a simple spreadsheet and keep the tallies of both numbers as reported, the volumes traded on both the ASX and ChiX. and the number of SOI, you will see some inaccuracies fairly regularly, but they generally sort themselves out over time (as the correct reporting is submitted).

Also keep in mind that there are more strategies in short selling than just to make a profit if price falls.
And that not all daily short sales are held short at the close of trade.
Don't anticipate a short squeeze to occur at some time when positions are covered, they are not very common anymore.


Anyway, here are the two individual web addresses if you want to have a go

ASIC short sales reports (this is the shorts that are 'held' as an ongoing short position)

ASX daily short sales (change the order to 'date published', and you will see the individual reports)

hope this helps in some way

cheers