Some years ago I was floor broker on the PSE. There was a specialist clerk that took over for a specialist trading post while the specialist was on vacation. The clerk amassed a large short position in one of the issues that the post traded. The losses that he created had spiralled out of control.

The clerk hid the short position by frequently changing the opposing side of the trades by giving it to one member and then to another. This went on for a number of trading sessions. Finally, the clearing corp discovered what was going on. When the specialist confronted the clerk he immediately picked up his morning paper, headed for the exit and was never seen again.

The bottom line is that short positions can be hidden when they should have been reported. So, when NO short positions are reported by the Exchange's clearing corp they can, in fact, exist.

Another way to short stock and have it not reported is when one firm borrows stock from another is some type of special agreement and sells the other firms shares.

Just because an Exhange states there is not a short position in a particular company's shares, it's not necessarily always the truth.