Replies to post #24492 on Infrax Systems Inc (IFXY)

[David Fowler]

Don't believe it. And here is why.

Here is a very good explanation about Finra RegSho numbers and what they mean, and more importantly WHAT THEY DON'T

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=55829362


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all those lists have done is confuse a lot of people. They have little to do with actual short interest. Ask FINRA, even they will direct you to the OTC Equity Short Reports that come out 'bimonthly' if you want an idea of actual short interest.

Put simply:

Until a security is delivered, it is considered to be technically short. If I sell some Mantra today, it will show up as a short sale on FINRA records until my MM meets the buying MM "at the window". This can take up to 10 days. All you are really looking at is the sell side volume minus any flips or buy side through the same dealer. For example. If I buy 1000 shares and you sell 2000 shares and we are both using NITE and this is the only volume they handled all day long, the system would show NITE is short 1000 shares until they deliver your stock to the buyer.

Stock is never delivered the same day you sell it. That would not be possible.

It's explained at the FINRA site. I have highlighted some important differences that have caused much confusion.

Pursuant to a Securities and Exchange Commission request, FINRA has agreed to make reported short sale trade data publicly available. FINRA will make two types of files available: (1) Daily Short Sale Volume Files and (2) Monthly Short Sale Transaction Files.

The Daily Short Sale Volume Files provide aggregated volume by security on all short sale trades executed and reported to a FINRA reporting facility during normal market hours. The Monthly Short Sale Transaction Files provide detailed trade activity of all short sale trades reported to a consolidated tape.

For additional information regarding the available data, please see Information Notice 9/29/09 or contact FINRA Operations at [phone]

Since FINRA began reporting them last Feb, those daily short sale volume lists have confused everyone (especially IHUB posters looking to blame 'shorty' for the 'manipulation' keeping their investment down LOL) .

A good blurb on it -

"One of the primary functions of broker-dealers is to act as intermediaries for investors that are buying or selling stock. Often, to carry out that function, broker-dealers will handle such investor orders on a riskless principal basis. A riskless sale is one in which a broker-dealer, after having received an order to sell a security, sells the security as principal, at the same price, to satisfy that order. Regulations require broker-dealers to mark their proprietary riskless sell order as short if they don't own the security, even if the customer order to sell the security is long. Since broker-dealers generally don’t maintain a position, a significant number of such riskless sales are reported as short, even though the customer is selling long, and the broker-dealer intends to and will buy the shares from the long selling customer immediately after the proprietary riskless short sale takes place."

Another reference:

Posted by: patchman Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 6:31:31 PM
In reply to: fourkids_9pets who wrote msg# 648 Post # of 951

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

http://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:

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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.

[Altec]

wow if that's accurate then thats a whole lot of shares being shorted. You gotta have a big pair to short a stock at this range along with its current share structure.