You have no way of knowing if CDEL is short this stock or not.
I worked for a hedge fund and they were a market maker who also took short positions. Why wouldn't CDEL take short positions since they are not only a market maker but a global institution that provides a wide range of investment strategies? Since they are self-clearing, they don't have to worry about margin and fees that a normal investor incurs.
8 million shares is what's available through Interactive Brokers only. The hedge fund I worked for would call the clearing agent first thing in the morning and put in their orders to lock in on borrowed shares. Once they borrowed those shares, they were locked up for the day whether they shorted them or not. Since CDEL is sell clearing, they could borrow far more and the rest is left for retail.
Who told you that a short position can't be held through a reverse split? Why can a long position be held and not a short? I never heard of such a thing. There isn't any rule anywhere stating that short positions must be covered prior to a reverse split. I notice that you give advice on issues like this but I would caution investors to do their own DD since you appear to be giving bad advice that could prove harmful to investors.
Here is how FINRA handles changes in securities when they go through something like a reverse split.
At the beginning of each short interest reporting cycle, the Regulation Filing Applications (RFA) creates a "draft" filing for each FINRA member that reflects the short interest positions reported by the member during the previous cycle's reporting period. If, however, an issue symbol that was reported during the previous cycle's reporting period is no longer active (i.e., the issue symbol has changed or expired), RFA currently designates the issue symbol as inactive and does not allow the member to input a position for that issue symbol for the current reporting period. The short position must be added to the member's filing and include the correct issue symbol.
Beginning with the February 2007 short interest reporting period, issue symbols are designated as active or inactive based on a security's Issue ID number rather than the issue symbol. This modification to the system resulted in changes to the member's "draft" filing. Specifically, if a security's issue symbol changes between reporting periods, the draft filing displays the most current active issue symbol for that security along with the short position the member reported during the previous cycle's filing, even if that short position was reported under an issue symbol that is no longer active. Also, should a security move among the NASDAQ, OTC equity, NYSE, NYSE MKT and NYSE Arca exchanges or market centers between reporting periods, the draft filing displays the most current active exchange or market code for the security along with the short position the member reported during the previous cycle's filing. If a security moves to an exchange or market center other than NASDAQ, OTC equity, NYSE, NYSE MKT or NYSE Arca, RFA designates the issue symbol as inactive and does not allow a member to input a position for that issue symbol for the current reporting period.
