They are shorted. They are shorted against conversions and shorted when they have certificates. It's like some people have an impossible time learning how the market actual works. What they are not is naked shorted or what the conspiracy theorist call, air shorted.
Shorting with a conversion or a certificate does not require borrowing and is not naked by the fact there is something to cover with.
GNCP - The trick is to accumulate shares at $0.0001 or lower...then to pay a third party to promote the stock...then to short into buying demand at $0.0002 and higher...then to demote the stock back to $0.0001 long enough and with enough support to close out all short positions, and/or to wash trade $0.0001’s from one account to the next to close out all short interest self-cleared...
The ideal situation for those shorting into buying demand is to have shares to short against...to cover at $0.0001...and to sell the original long position at break even or a slight loss...
This way...when others are getting busted for a pump and dump...those doing the same thing but shorting against their long position do not make the “radar” of the SEC and DOJ...
I can't tell - are you being sarcastic? Of course shorts and naked shorting exist - hence government regs against certain aspects of it. Now I don't use it as a metric for a lot of stocks because it all depends on the O/S to determine the traction of these - but I laugh every time I hear about "experts" pronouncing anything. Of course shorters don't want their true tactics to be talked about anymore than pumpers do.