Given the small number of short sales I doubt its a hedge.....I still put it down at an attempt to manipulate the PPS in an effort to accumulate....and while manipulation is a loaded word I'm not suggesting any wrong doing. Obviously, given the hefty margin requirements, shorting with accumulation in mind....its not a strategy that's employed by the bleacher bumb discount broker crowd (my hand is up)....Those with the ability and means however, all the more power to them.