Hi Jim,

If Research Capital lets say went short 100,000 shares of NOT at $4.50, meaning they sold 100k of shares they didn't own, they borrowed these shares from some investment house. Then today they bought the 100k shares at prices of $3.66 to $3.70. Whatever they paid for their shares today they put the difference in their pocket. In my example if they shorted at $4.50 and bought the shares a$3.70 today they made $.80 a share. Although many long investors detest the shorters its actually a good thing. It keeps the market liquid. Remember a shorter makes no profit until he actually buys the shares to replace the ones he sold previously. Just look at is as the opposite way of playing the market that you do. It matters not because for every way of playing the market for an investor to actually make money it requires two things a buy and a sell. A shorter just changes the order of playing it than a person who goes long an investment and expects the stock to go up. The shorter expects the stock to go down. Same idea different way of doing it.

Al