Polar Petroleum Corp. (POLR)

[DragonBear]

What at svu still there shorting at what 7.00 but before that it was 2.40 and shorts were 46% of the float

Whoa puppy. In looking at its chart SVU is a NYSE stock that was chugging along at 7, wiggled down to 5, and then suddenly crashed to below 2.50 on bad news - store closings? Whatever. So you are trying to compare a NYSE stock where if one had wanted to Short it at 5 for 1K shares, your broker would ask for you to be able to cover a margin of $5K, to Shorting POLR below the 2.50 minimum, requiring a margin of $2.5M to Short 1K shares?

Your svu example was a stock which by the numbers you tracked probably did have a large Short volume - bad news attracts Shorts. But is that the case for these penny stocks? You point to the Short interest reported for POLR. Where that Short interest could increase tomorrow. But how can it, when it's illegal to Short a non-marginable stock such as POLR? No broker or intervening MM helping to facilitate a trade is going to directly risk their business by allowing you the retail investor to illegally Short POLR. So why is it Short activity reported for these previously suspended non-marginable penny stocks changes?

Courtesy of poster BigBake1, who has worked in the financial sector, and understands the mechanics:

The scoop

I have 50,000 shares of CCTC for sale on the best ask, you want 25,000 of those shares. So you place an order with your broker, electronically your brokerage checks internally for shares for sale, but nothing matches the size or price. It is uplined to an ECN where it sits in que. Each broker has an MM quoting for them, your brokers MM sees the order in que and knows I have 50,000 shares for sale at that price.

Electronically it executes an immediate trade to your broker for 25,000 shares sold to your account. In accordance with SEC Rule 200 that trade must be “MARKED” short although it is in fact a long position trade, this is reported to the Daily Reg Sho. At the very same time on a different leg of the same transaction the MM then buys 25,000 shares from my best Ask to cover that open position, this gets reported as a NON TAPE TRANSACTION. This prevents doubling the reported volume of the actual trade that occured. Both consolidated tape and Non Tape Transactions are sent to FINRA and are balanced and reconciled for accuracy.

Even though a MM is no longer maintaining an electronic spread for POLR, they are still involved in helping the brokers hook up for grey trades. No ECN, but Rule 200 still holds. That is how you get Short interest going up and down in previously suspended stocks, where it's illegal for your broker to allow you to Short them. It's the mechanics of the trade. Nothing to do with actual Short interest, as might occur in SVU.