NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Chiugray]

TDD, Nice work and interesting thread of posts.

I don't know why there are big fluctuations in the pool of "shares available for shorting" but this is my speculation on possible scenarios:

1. A buyer wants to take a large NWBO position without bidding up price, so it works with a MM/broker to facilitate the buys over multiple hours/days in a dark pool. The MM/broker either directly or syndicate the shares by borrowing from other lenders. This reduces the pool size. After the purchase is complete and the shares are posted to the Buyer's account, held at this same MM institution, then these shares will be added back to pool.

2. The MM regularly recycles naked short transactions with short-covering transactions and then re-shorting, a continual churning so the FTD never triggers. Possibly the short-covering and re-shorting has to take place on different days, so they are not netted out to zero in the end of day batching of transactions. These high volume swings may just be the ebb and flow of many layers in a larger inventory of shorted shares held at multiple institutions.

My gut tells me the MMs are too deep in short/naked-short to substantively cover their actual short positions on a net basis. That would require actual shareholders selling actual shares. And I just don't see that happening, especially now when NWBO is at an extremely manipulated low price and a multi-X price increase could be triggered any week just by the act of submitting the MAA to the UK.