> Assuredly once the shorters get a hold of a share of stock, they're not gonna let it go because they need it to cover their position. vs >They have to deliv

> Assuredly once the shorters get a hold of a share of stock, they're not gonna let it go because they need it to cover their position. vs >They have to deliver it to the market maker which they took up the short position with. The market maker will then put that share back on the open market. If you want to deliver another stock, you need to buy it back from the market maker, at full market value, and deliver it back to the market maker. You can't just conjure up a share in order to cover with. The second paragraph seems to be the opposite of the first: once you acquire it, you return it to close some of your position, and then it's for sale again... so you can return the same share N times, distinctness be damned? You clearly don't need distinctness for the TOTAL sum of all short positions, because then the math wouldn't work. No, the person you returned it to isn't going to cut you a sweetheart deal, but they ARE a motivated seller because the price is so high right now.