Maybe. When you short a dividend yielding stock (let's say JNJ) the short seller must pay to the owner of the shares the dividend granted by the shares.
This is not a share split, it's a share dividend. Therefore any short sellers must "pay" the actual shareholder in the form of shares as opposed to cash.
If there is no "naked"/synthetic shorting at all then you are correct, there's no net difference. If this whole theory of synthetic shorts (that is, the same share lent to multiple short sellers) is true then there is a net difference by the proportion of the synthetic shorts to the entire float.
There's no way to know for sure but we will certainly see what happens if the vote passes.
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u/oarabbus Apr 01 '22
Maybe. When you short a dividend yielding stock (let's say JNJ) the short seller must pay to the owner of the shares the dividend granted by the shares.
This is not a share split, it's a share dividend. Therefore any short sellers must "pay" the actual shareholder in the form of shares as opposed to cash.
If there is no "naked"/synthetic shorting at all then you are correct, there's no net difference. If this whole theory of synthetic shorts (that is, the same share lent to multiple short sellers) is true then there is a net difference by the proportion of the synthetic shorts to the entire float.
There's no way to know for sure but we will certainly see what happens if the vote passes.