<< Craig, there's only 900k out there what do you guess the short interest is? >>
Well, 900,000 is the latest reported figure. It could be higher now, possibly 1 million or even 1.5 million, who knows.
As for the short interest, I would only be guessing. Short interest through the 15th of April will be reported next week. I can tell you one thing though. I'm trading all day so I get around SI pretty well and I also sometimes hang out in a stock chat room on AOL. I can tell you that I don't hear anyone talking about KTEL as a buy, all I hear is that it is a hype stock that should be shorted. I think plenty of people shorted KTEL (recklessly) simply because it ran up 300% in a week. Well I suppose you could have shorted OCCF just because it ran up 300% in short order. Trouble is, after one month it was up over 1200% before it came back down. After announcing two 2 for 1 stock splits it's still trading at a pre-split 40 a share. Remember, it ran up from 10 so anyone that shorted it after it quadrupled is only even two years later.
Just remember folks, KTEL could do the same thing as OCCF. If their stock keeps climbing the way it has been they might announce a 2 for 1 split. They won't even have to have a good reason for it like OCCF didn't have, all they have to do is say that the float is too small and doesn't provide enough liquidity, so in the best interest of shareholders they are doing a 3 for 1 split or something like that. Remember, SIEB started taking off after they announced a 4 for 1 split just so they would be compliant with Nasdaq standards. You have to have a minimum float for Nasdaq.
<< Ps: how does a 900k float trade 4.7m? >>
Well first of all you have the double counting phenomenon of Nasdaq stocks, so maybe it wasn't actually 4.7 million. Second the float may be a little higher than 900,000 in actuality. Third, let's say you buy 1 share of KTEL. Then I borrow that share and sell it short. Then I decide to give up shorting it after it goes up another 8 points so I cover, returning your shares. Then you decide it has run up enough for you so you decide to sell it. Your 1 share of KTEL just accounted for 4 transactions, and I didn't even add in the possible double counting. Plus I'm sure MM's are playing with this stock too, buying and shorting as they please. Unless I'm mistaken a MM can short without a downtick. When someone borrows your shares and then sells them in the market it would seem to me that an expansion of the float would occur. But I'm not very knowledgable about these sort of things, maybe someone else with more experience could straighten this out. |
