I won't argue ClayTrader's motives and whether he's involved with the shorts as I haven't bothered to study this guy. However, you said "I think a fair amount of buying this past week could've been shorts loading up for such an event" and that, in my understanding of how shorting works, is incorrect. Shorts don't load up to short. If a short seller is long in a stock then by very definition, they aren't short. If they sell shares they own after a run up, that's simply selling shares they own for a profit. If they don't 'load up before a short attack' and simply wait for the attack to start and then they sell short, then that is a short move. They, by definition, are selling shares they don't own, thus shorting. So, there's no "loading up" in order to short.
Also, you stated that you believe "there's going to be a concerted effort to push the stock down first thing in the morning in an attempt to cover and accumulate." When you are short, yes, you will in all likelihood need to cover. While covering, you are not accumulating as the buying you're doing isn't adding to your stores of shares. At that point, the person shorting is finally paying for the shares sold that weren't yet owned. If they short 1,000 shares their share balance is -1,000 shares. Let's say they buy back 200 of those shares. Their new share balances is now -800 and so on until their obligation is met when their share balance reaches zero. At that point, if they wish to accumulate shares then they may do so.
One could make the argument that by buying a bunch of shares and riding a stock up to an inevitable peak and then selling all those shares for a profit in a concerted effort (read market manipulation) with others who intend to sell all at once to give the initial downward push, could start the downward momentum. This would then show a 'sign of weakness' wherein they would, after selling ALL those accumulated shares, continue selling what they no longer own. Of course, that'll be hard to do if they were already short as they would be forced to first cover those shorted shares before they could ever begin to "load up".
In a stock that's in a weakened state and whose fundamentals aren't solid with many catalysts at play, this strategy might be effective; however, Cytodyn isn't that kind of company now. Cytodyn's Leronlimab is proving to be a game changer and the world is starting to realize that. People are beginning to see the value of this drug, not only to the salvation of the population but also the financial value. This is why, in my opinion, there has been a run up and will continue to be a run up. When a pre-revenue biotech company finally is no longer in the pre-revenue stage but in the revenue stage, everything changes. This is especially true when that biotech company has a product that is SAFE, effective and can change the world by saving countless lives. I would hate to be short this stock and get caught holding a bag full of IOUs when the price begins to REALLY move up.
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