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Message: [QUOTE="Fat tire 13, post: 3716373, member: 6171"] Here is a pretty good explanation (not from me, I read it in an article). Shares can get lent out more than once if they follow a certain path [I]but I want to offer an even simpler explanation. There are 100 shares. A owns 90 of them, B owns 10. A lends her 90 shares to C, who shorts them all to D. Now A owns 90 shares, B owns 10 and D owns 90—there are 100 shares outstanding, but 190 shares show up on ownership lists. (The accounts balance because C owes 90 shares to A, giving C, in a sense, negative 90 shares.) Short interest is 90 shares out of 100 outstanding. Now D lends her 90 shares to E, who shorts them all to . Now A owns 90, B 10, D 90 and 90, for a total of 280 shares. Short interest is 180 shares out of 100 outstanding. No problem! No big deal! You can just keep re-borrowing the shares. can lend them to G! It's fine.[/I] [/QUOTE]