XpresSpa Group Inc (XSPA)

[xlt leader]

Ok let take this one point at a time:

Those who own the ~16M short positions (or at least own a decent chunk of it) have hedged their positions by acquiring long positions in the common stock as well. Or they have always been long but decided to also short it once the laches and jury debacle hit the news.

Major shorts are most like hedged through the options market. The long buyers I alluded to are not major shorts but smaller groups ( my opinion) I think they buy long now and sell just to prevent the stock from moving without disturbing their short position, you will note hardly any movement in short positions here and an increase of about 1 million / month From Jan 1 2013.

Either way, the point is that they now hold both long and short positions, correct? If so, then what you are alluding to is that to protect their short positions, they are strategically dumping just enough of their long shares whenever they see large bids in order to suppress any buying pressure that may build up?

NO I am not suggesting they own shares long. The big shorts have some options strategies the smaller shorts in groups probably use strategies as I suggested and others to keep the stock suppressed. Notice the tiny share range every day.

So, under your theory, whenever the sp dips (or even when the sp is stagnant), it is these same shorts who are buying up the shares being sold by frustrated longs, day traders, whoever, to "re-load" their long positions in order to keep repeating the above scenario?

Same shorts different shorts no one knows. Frustrated longs yes, they sell when they continue to see no movement.

If so, it seems that you are suggesting that they are willing to sacrifice potential gains on their long positions (by dumping shares when they see large bids) simply to protect their short positions?

Not really I don't think they are giving up their short position to do this. Selling a stock after a penny or two move which is what happens here daily is not really giving up gains the big gains is in keeping the stock down so that if they are wrong they cover form lower levels . Without this daily massaging I would be willing to wager the stock is higher that where it is now.