An interesting theory - that the shorts are explained by someone who wants to be long but is hedging their position by also going short - but I don't get it. I have traded a lot of options, but going short and long common stock just cancel each other out, to my mind. Plus, you have to pay interest on borrowing the stock to short (you can't short using your own shares, to my knowledge).

I am open-minded but I don't get how you can be short and long the same common stock and be hedged by that. Let me know if there's an explanation.