ASX Data - Short Interest

suprsnipes · 5 August 2008

Hi,

I have been tracking this data for a few weeks now and have posted it here for others to see and make comments.

Basically I would like to know if any other traders/investors find this data as interesting as I do.

What I have found so far;

*Short interest in the companies has been decreasing, especially over the last week or so*
**Data showed the biggest decrease in short interest (since I have collected this data) on Friday 1st August (this EOD data was available from the ASX website approx. 12.30pm)**
*** Here is the index values I have assigned along with the date (Higher = more short interest, lower = less short interest)***

Date Value
08.07 197.47
09.07 187.82
10.07 191.34
11.07 189.69
14.07 188.04
15.07 188.47
16.07 180.89
17.07 175.59
18.07 174.53
21.07 170.77
22.07 173.05
23.07 171.67
24.07 163.24
25.07 163.23
28.07 161.27
29.07 160.41
30.07 159.12
31.07 160.72
01.08 116.88
04.08 106.81

****Shorts have decreased massively over the last 2 days****

Please see the attached spreadsheet for further information.

Any feedback good or bad would be greatly appreciated.

suprsnipes · 5 August 2008

Re: ASX Data - Short Interest - Reply appreciated

Reply to the above post is appreciated...thought there would be more interest in this thread...

BSD · 5 August 2008

Value of this data is very limited as a great number (majority?) of shorts are unreported.

The ASX is a shorting haven for this reason.

Efficient markets are the best markets.

Sadly, the ASX in its conflicted wisdom decided our market isn't to be efficient or transparent with its moves to remove broker codes and be dormant on reporting of REAL short interest.

Wouldn't you love to know the owners (dare I say POOLS?) behind the largest shorts in the market?

And who would this hurt?

suprsnipes · 5 August 2008

So how is this possible and what's the point of the report...

How do you find out the REAL short interest?

BSD · 5 August 2008

If I borrow your XYZ shares, paying you 10% pa daily and sell them on the open tomorrow - who would know?

Or if I just fail to settle a naked sale of a couple of days paying a weak small fine - who would know/report?

Hence the fact you cannot know the REAL short interest.

Great system hey?

suprsnipes · 5 August 2008

Is this the same case for stocks traded in on NYSE or NASDAQ. I have noticed that the stocks listed in the US show a much higher short interest than the companies listed here.

Is the regulation there more transparent??

BSD · 5 August 2008

No idea mate

suprsnipes · 5 August 2008

BSD can you check this site out and let me know if you or any other traders for that matter think it's a waste of time to gather this data...

http://www.asx.com.au/data/shortsell.txt

BSD · 5 August 2008

I know the series and don't know anyone who can gain any insight from it.

But -

1. I don't know everyone

2. If anyone were making money from it - they wouldn't tell me!

Sorry

MaleJunk · 5 August 2008

suprsnipes said:
Hi,

I have been tracking this data for a few weeks now and have posted it here for others to see and make comments.

Unfortunately the data the ASX makes available is as good as useless.

The bulk of the short selling is done off market. Stock lending done between the large instos.

You have a situation where Superfund A may own 10m shares in XYZ. Superfund B wants to short the stock so they borrow it from Superfund A and pay them a fee for the privilege. They then sell the stock into the market and drive the price down. Eventually they have to buy the stock back and pay it back to Superfund A

The situation is perverse. Superfund A which is long and hoping that the share price appreciates is actually assisting another superfund to drive the price down. Go figure.

This activity is not reported to the ASX. Its said to be substatially greater in szie than the on market reported activity.

No one actually knows how much "short selling" is going on.

benwex · 6 August 2008

MaleJunk said:
Unfortunately the data the ASX makes available is as good as useless.

The bulk of the short selling is done off market. Stock lending done between the large instos.

You have a situation where Superfund A may own 10m shares in XYZ. Superfund B wants to short the stock so they borrow it from Superfund A and pay them a fee for the privilege. They then sell the stock into the market and drive the price down. Eventually they have to buy the stock back and pay it back to Superfund A

The situation is perverse. Superfund A which is long and hoping that the share price appreciates is actually assisting another superfund to drive the price down. Go figure.

This activity is not reported to the ASX. Its said to be substatially greater in szie than the on market reported activity.

No one actually knows how much "short selling" is going on.

This explanation seems mad and maybe incorrect. Shorting stocks maybe not be as simple as borrowing the physical stock as described above. Derivatives maybe used to protect the owner of any downside they may experience on the underlying assets?? it would only make sense and would be part of the borrowing costs that the shorter would have to pay..

Does anyone really know for a fact how the over the counter CFD work, which I use to short companies???

If you think about it, if brokers know how much of there book is long/short leveraged they could really run some havoc, but I think they would not have many clients for long.

benwex

ASX Data - Short Interest

Attachments

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency