That's about 1.8% of the outstanding shares and about 1.8 times the 20 day average volume of 1.4 M shares. 20 day average volume is a bit skewed though - no mystery there.

I'm trying to figure out what the days to cover a 2.58 M share short position would be. If 1/2 M is a reasonable daily average, then it would take just over a week, all of it short covering. If half the volume were short covering, you're looking at 2 weeks, 25% then 4 weeks. Does this make any sense?

What is this increase telling us? Are amateur shorts piling on? Seems kind of foolish in front of potentially good news. Or will the news be bad? I suppose that's possible if it's more of the same BS we've come to expect, but I really can't see that based on what we know so far. I mean, seriously, could it get any worse?

So what is it? Has someone collared a long position? I guess that would be the cautious thing to do - give up some potential upside in exchange for a guaranteed price should the news be bad. Given that there's no options on ARU, this the only insurance you can buy. I suppose it's reasonable to assume that even if the price goes up, it won't soar and will probably come back some, giving you time to cover at a slight loss, if this is in fact a hedge.

This is annoying. It's not a huge position under normal circumstances, but these are anything but normal circumstances. Maybe it's just there to sow doubt and shake out the last of the bear cubs? If so, these people just don't understand bears.

ebear