[saghm]

I guess that depends on your definition of "hold"? The entire concept of short-selling requires that you're selling the shares from from someone who would presumably not otherwise be selling given that they're stipulating that they get the shares back afterwards. I think the point is that if those short sellers weren't there, there would just be fewer shares available to buy because the ones who are letting the short sellers borrow theirs would just be holding onto them.