I'm with you Timmo - the "Change to Substantial Holdings" notices that are released to the market every couple of weeks or so tell the story. MS are in it up to their collective eyeballs. They are lending out shares to numerous other financial institutions, including CommSec, several hedge funds, and others. That has to be for the purposes of shorting - and this presumably will happen using MS's own algo computers on behalf of the borrowers.
Doesn't really matter whose actual computers are doing the shorting, though - it's happening.
But I'd disagree about the fact that 9.7% of all shares being held short meaning that MS can't short too many more. Apart from buying and selling to themselves (one entity to another), one of the things they do is to lend the shares out for shorting, then buy them back. Then when the shorts get covered, they sell them back to the shorter who then returns the shares back - again - to MS.
And don't forget there are many other big holders of LYC probably doing the same things - it's only the fact that MS hold over 5% of the company that they have to release that info to the market.
The shares go round and round, often with no nett gain or loss in numbers, but raking off profits every which way.
It happens. And it's not conspiracy theory either...
LYC Price at posting:
$1.11 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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