Sharks in the WaterNever doubt you are swimming with sharks.
Quick profit traders run the price up then dump quickly to take their profits. The shorts see what is happening and once the quick traders run prices up and prices top they start the selling with borrowed shares prompting the quick profit traders to dump to take their profits and in the process drive prices down to were the shorters can buy cheap shares to replace the more expense shares they borrowed - covering.
They work in concert and you can see that in Precsision's recent trading. The shorters are the ones who tip the scales when enthusiasm wanes and panic ceases.
Take a look at the last short interest report for Precision Drilling and compare it to the price charts:
https://www.dailyfinance.com/company/precision-drilling-corporation/pd/tor/short-interest
https://stockcharts.com/freecharts/gallery.html?PD.TO
Short positions soared 3,290,157 sometime in the first two weeks of March coinciding with a sharp price pull back. Shorters were selling on bad news opportunity with panicing people taking profits. If they had their timing right they would have been selling at the begining of March and should have covered by 16 March. But the report shows that as of 16 March the short positions were still outstanding. On 17 March the share price rocketed. Did the shorters try to buy back on the 17th. If they did not make it on that date they may still be holding. Ank said he sold on the 17th and even shorted - borrowing more to sell. If he did he has not had an opportunity since to buy back at a lower price.
You can see the panic in the S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index:
https://stockcharts.com/freecharts/gallery.html?$SPTEN
This was an opportunity for the shorters to recoup losses because their prior bets against Precision in January did not pan out as they were liquidating positions in February when share prices were still climbing.
What is next? Precision's share price has been climbing in the last 7 days of trading. If the shorters did not get their positions covered on 17 March then they are out of the money and either took a loss or are still holding. Now that the share price is getting near the upper channel are the shorters waiting for the price to top and if it does will the shorters hit the share price with another wave of short selling and instigate profit taking?
We will see when the short interest report comes out at the begining of next month.