OT--Steve, there are almost 1 billion shares of SIRI on the market, so a short position of 68 million is rather small, especially compared to the average daily volume. I wasn't aware of the $5 minimum rule for shorting. But if options are traded, one can always buy puts. One can also buy the shares and if they go up, buy puts as a hedge. This would be preferable to shorting, as any loss is finite.
Stocks that trade at very low prices are often subject to unusual market action, sometimes justified, sometimes not. As a general rule, many institutional funds are not permitted to be invested in any shares trading at less than $5 or $10. However, there are often occasions when a really good stock falls below the $10 mark and ends up a pretty decent buy. Examples include SanDisk back in 1998, when it was around $7 per share (pre split), with a total of close to $6 in cash. More recently, Corning was selling near $2, owing to weakness in the market for fiber optic lines. It's now over $10.
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