InterOil short interest skyrockets.

[Gator]

At the end of the settlement date of March 15, 2013, short interest in InterOil stock (NYSE- IOC) skyrocketed  again in the latest reporting period to a record high of 14,049,458 according to the NYSE .  Over 1,075,000 shares were shorted during the first two weeks of March.  This is the 11^th consecutive reporting period with increased short interest in InterOil stock.  Since the end of September, over 5 million additional shares of InterOil have been shorted.

With over 14 million shares short, InterOil now has over 28% of all the company’s shares are sold short and over 34% of the available float is short.  InterOil is now one of the top 10 stocks on the NYSE as a percentage of float short.  The 8% increase in short interest in the latest two week reporting period didn’t deter the IOC stock price as it was up 3.5% during the first two weeks of March.  Even with the massive increased short interest this year, InterOil stock has continued to perform well as the stock up 33% YTD.

With over $1 Billion worth of InterOil shares short, the stock has becoming increasingly more difficult to borrow and those short have to pay significantly higher rates to borrow the shares.  With the end of the first quarter looming, short funds may be forced to cover as investor redemptions increase due to underperformance.

[cybersssss]

THIS IS AWESOME!

[jft310]

So let's see the shorts are paying 50-70% to borrow shares and their fund will face redemptions as their short position isn't working for them. Think Tilson! Think also of all that borrow money we are saving their fund from paying to LONG shareholders. Heck they should thank us.

[ellerslick]

THIS IS AWESOME!

Today we are down 2 1/2 dollars on 426,000 shares and it looked like they were pounding it.  With all the shares in insider hands, institutional mutual funds, and shorts can anybody guess on what float is left.  I have come to the conclusion that most of the trading is circular.  You can guess that there is monkey business going on but this just affirms it.

Where are they getting the shares, maybe the big boys have their ways.  I know people have said there are no shares available but this does not seem to be the case.  Today is a perfect example. Where would we be in share price without all the downside pressure.

[tarulestheday]

HOLY CRAP. This doesn't even take into consideration all of the daily naked shorting that has been going on for years.

Brokers have pushed the borrow to the brink which means we have a few very powerful shorts with very deep pockets.

Having over 14 million shares of captive future buyers should make longs sleep very well at night.

On a side note, I heard from a big dog that our Zebra is very angry these days.

[jft310]

Poor Shell consortium groupies. Rode the wrong horse.

[admin]

HOLY CRAP. This doesn't even take into consideration all of the daily naked shorting that has been going on for years. Brokers have pushed the borrow to the brink which means we have a few very powerful shorts with very deep pockets. Having over 14 million shares of captive future buyers should make longs sleep very well at night. On a side note, I heard from a big dog that our Zebra is very angry these days.

It's remarkable in itself that all that shorting hasn't got the price down, powerful as they might be, deep pockets as they may have, they can't do this forever. I've always argued there are costs, risks and  limits involved in shorting, and with what, 70% interest rates or so it seems that the latter are rapidly approaching.

70% isn't much in terms of days, or even weeks, but speaking about months and it really becomes quite a different story. And I'm just looking at it from a cost perspective, from a risk perspective I would really have a few butterflies in my stomach if I was short, there is quite a bit that can go wrong for them, with dire consequences. They really must believe that IOC can only get a very crappy deal, and the longer this drags on, the crappier the deal will have to be for them to get anything remotely approaching a return on their money.

And even a crappy deal sets IOC up for monetization, de-risks much of the project, and allows IOC to discover and appraise more, so they won't have that much of a window to get out.

[jft310]

Admin-Whatever the size of the window it will be on higher floor than today and their will be no fireman to catch them.

[TxPm]

Just to clarify I don't know where this 70% rate came from but I can tell you 100% that the large shorts behind this are NOT paying rates any higher than 5-7% and I actually believe their rates are closer to 3-5%. With that being said some shorts like Gefvert who have 0 clout may be paying 70% but the Big HF's behind this are not.

Taking all that into consideration I still can't see 1) why you are shorting more at this point 2) where these shorts are finding millions of new shares to short. I sure hope whoever is buying all these deep ITM calls exercises those calls all at once

[jft310]

Tx their are rates for customers and other rates for non customers.Big boys pay different rates than average guys.Size matters. What their actually paying to me is unknown. Whats published is non customer rates to little guys.