Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said, "The decimal is not misplaced -- we have cracked the speed of light. It is my understanding that some shareholders (e.g., pension funds) might have asked that their shares not be made available to shorts, thus reducing the 8.97 million shares the DTCC has available for lending. I also understand that the 9.58 million stated short interest does not include failed-to-deliver short sales, failed-to-deliver long sales, another category that the DTCC now cryptically calls, 'open positions,' or lending outside the DTCC (i.e., 'ex-clearing'), which only two guys on Staten Island understand. Thus the real ratio is anyone's guess, but it's somewhere between 107% and infinity. On a positive note, the DTCC continues to maintain that their Stock Borrow Program does not permit the creation of new or counterfeit shares: I think that's good, because otherwise this situation could be getting out of control."
Short interest reports do not state that the short interest is 107% of the float. It states short interest of the O/S from what I understand. Pat Byrne is stating that the 107% is based upon the float. Some of the float was not borrowable.
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