[shawabawa3]

> Short positions by the means of shorting ETFs containing GME are reported as ETF SI (and XRT, by the way, has 700% SI)

XRT only holds 0.71% GME shares, so seems like an extremely inefficient way of shorting it. The entire XRT short position is around 170k GME shares, or about 0.4% of the float

> Synthetic short positions (e.g. by the means of options) do not have to be reported and FINRA is only now 'considering' asking to report it

But put options don't get squeezed (call options may cause a gamma squeeze)

> Retail directly registered over 10% of available float (excl. insider shares) as of 3 months ago

What relevance does that have? There's still 90% of the float available to be lent with a short interest of just 15%

I still hold some GME shares leftover from last year but fully believe the short squeeze has happened and there's nothing but a collective delusion left

[nairboon]

> XRT only holds 0.71% GME shares, so seems like an extremely inefficient way of shorting it.

No, actually it's quite efficient. You short XRT and simultaneously go long all other components except GME. Now you are net short GME without having to report a short position on it or borrow shares in the first place.

[auntienomen]

Except that you need to buy a _lot_ of stocks to cancel out the non-GME positions. It's probably 100x more expensive to short Game Stop this way. Not economically feasible, even if you could find a broker willing to do it.

[Anadorr]

Correct - put options don't get squeezed, but short call options do.

The thing is, buying ITM put options usually due to delta hedging causes the counter-party (market maker) to sell shares short. If done directly (OTC) and with prior agreement, this 1) lets the parties create short positions owned by market maker, 2) hide these short positions, since market maker has 6 days to settle the trade (deliver the stock), but can fail to deliver and has in total 21 days for delivery.

The only short positions that need to be reported are "those short positions resulting from short sales that have settled or reached settlement date by the close of the reporting settlement date" [1], so as I understand market makers can hold a large non-delivered not settled 'limbo' position and not report it since it's not settled by the reporting date, and just reset the cycle every 6-21 days.

Oh, and short interest is self-reported and not enforced, so any self-clearing market making firm could make 'mistakes', sometimes even for 6 years straight [2], and go away with a small fine.

1 - https://www.finra.org/rules-guidance/rulebooks/finra-rules/4...

2- https://www.finra.org/media-center/news-releases/2015/finra-...