Shorts Exposed

[Dragonwing]

All trades are reported using one of the following trade entry message values

Longs who sell stock without custody of shares are tagged as short sales

Sell trades with no shares would still be tagged as a sale(S), not short, and notice crossing has its own value also.

Custody delays associated with stock loans or custody related to 144 sales would constitute posting a long sale a short sale

"Trades in certain classes of securities, such as Rule 144A securities, are reported to the ORF, but not disseminated. Non-disseminated securities will not be included in either the daily short sale volume file or the monthly short sale transaction file."

http://www.finra.org/web/groups/industry/@ip/@reg/@rulfil/documents/rulefilings/p120246.pdf

Day traders who buy first sell later will create a short sale as they never held custody when selling.

It wouldn't be a "short sale" unless an entry of "C - Selling Customer Sold Short" was entered