InvestorsHub Logo

As I See It

08/05/14 7:39 AM

#10177 RE: zerowinner #10176

Daily short volume is probably the most misunderstood statistic out there. The number that is important is the equity (net) short interest as reported by FINRA rule 4560.

http://otcbb.com/asp/OTCE_Short_Interest.asp

This number is reported every 15 days. STWA has been showing a net short position of less than 100,000 shares for several months. This is extremely low. The last reported number was as of July 15th at 54,501 shares net short.

The daily short volume number doesn't necessarily capture shorting in the true sense of the word. Most of this number is generated by market makers during the natural course of their business. For instance, in simple terms, suppose I'm a market maker starting out the day flat. My first transaction of the day is to sell shares to someone. Since I didn't start the day with a long position, that is reported as short volume. My next transaction of the day is to buy an equal number of shares from someone else. My position is now flat again, exactly how I started the day. If my day ended right there, 50% of my volume was a short sale and 50% was buying long. As a market maker my primary goal is to make money off of the spread. At the end of the day, most market makers strive to be close to flat.

Logically, if you think about it, the daily short volume can't represent what you think it does. If you were to add up all of the short volume reported on that site each day, it would very quickly add up to tens of millions of shares.