You realize if someone sells and has the usual brokerage account times to deliver and close that transaction, the shares are reported on the FINRA daily short list as short? Real sells out of an account can take up to 10 days to deliver - if not immediately delivered they are technically short and reported on the daily list. In other words, "real" sales from holders' accounts are shown on the daily short list if not delivered. Even numbers over 50% do NOT mean there is a corresponding accumulation of open shorts - just that many shares on the sale side that day that are in process of being closed out.
Call FINRA - they are very helpful in explaining this.
More pertinent are the monthly lists. FINRA reported shorts for CDIV are 541,517 for period close 4/30/10 and 571,926 the prior period ending 4/15/10 - a decrease in 5% of short interest between this two week period. In any case, 541K shorts is FAR different than 50 million.
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