I'm not saying shorts don't have an impact, but the de-leveraging of Ospraie and RAB have had the biggest inpact in the last week. Meanwhile, Sprott admits they've been forced to sell because of investors pulling the pin, and who knows what other funds forced to do the same. John
Embry explicitly said this was happening in a recent interview at Gold Report.

Joe Bloe investor doesn't want to leave their money in a mutual fund that has lost 40% in the last two quarters.

I've been looking at it as a buying opportunity and a forced oversold situation. Managed to buy some stocks this week at a 70% + discount.