Replies to post #6228 on Aluf Holdings Inc (AHIX)

[seabreezing]

this is a except from a post I could copy and paste many others but....

why don't you just explain it again?"

He posted it (again) yesterday. I had no trouble finding it.

"If you don't believe or understand the explanation below please call FINRA and they will confirm it."

"The short data that comes out daily means next to nothing in regards to people shorting the stock. It is useless for finding the actual short interest the only numbers useful are the bi-weekly ones.
Only the first leg of a trade is marked on those numbers and many/most transactions are done on a riskless principal basis. So for example Joe is offering 100@1$, Mary comes along and lifts the offer for 100@1$ So the market maker sells 100 shares to Mary (which he is then short) he then immediately buys the 100 shares from Joe which flattens his position. Joe and Mary have got what they want now and the MM has no position. That transaction is marked in those numbers as a short sale as the first leg of the trade is what gets marked. So you get 100 marked short but nobody is short."
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=62538237&txt2find=leg

Another explanation, worded differently but describing the same basic process is offered by the poster "patchman":
"Short Sale Volume Reporting’s are deceiving.
I spoke to FINRA today and found out some very interesting things that until now I did not fully understand. I knew there was something wrong with this transparency of information but was not 100% sure what it was. I think I have my answer and it was enlightening.

I was first directed to the Notice to Members memo dated 9/29/2009

www.finra.org/Industry/Regulation/Notices/2009/P120045

The individual I spoke with wanted to make clear that to maintain proper trade volume reporting accuracy, a trade with multiple legs in the trade would only be reported once in the volume reports. The example given would be.

Investor A is long 100 shares and wants to sell. They enter the order through their broker that is routed to a market maker. That market maker will go out and sell the stock into the market before they have bought the stock from you/your broker to close out their account. They do not take possession first as there is no guarantee they can sell the order into the market. By this Notice, the actual sale INTO the market is a short sale because the market maker sold the stock into the market BEFORE they had purchased the stock from you. It is a technicality since they know there position will be closed out minutes later when they go in and buy your shares. To avoid doubling up on trade volume and distorting the picture, only the sale into the market (consolidated tape) is recorded and not the second leg which was the sale transaction between seller and market maker.

So, this is why the short sale volume is high but also why the FTD’s and bi-Monthly short interest reports are not showing any indications of this volume. The short isn’t really a short it is the execution of a long sale by a market maker. The key language in the FINRA notice is this:


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily Short Sale Volume File will provide daily access to the aggregate volume of short sales in NMS Stocks and OTC Equity Securities reported to a consolidated tape and traded over-the-counter during regular trading hours on each trading day."
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=57101068



Both of the above are far clearer explanations than that which FINRA offers by the way, which I also had no difficulty finding:
http://www.finra.org/web/groups/industry/@ip/@reg/@notice/documents/notices/p120044.pdf


There are hundreds of posts explaining the daily short list and their regular misrepresentation. However people use the numbers to fit what they want..just thinking out loud

[paulenater]

Looking good for tomorrow.