I can't find any material on why there are so many shorts on Capricorn. Even though it has come down, 5m shares is still lots.

So I thought I would put my thoughts.

Reasons for short (or not buying)

* Mt Gibson/Crimson Metals was deemed insignificant in the eyes of all the majors.

* There was also the court case between Crimson Metals v Extension Pty Ltd + Minjar regarding application exemptions so the majors thought this was a detractor to the project.

https://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/Documents/Wardens-Court/2017WAMW22.pdf

* Mt Gibson project was bought cheap for 40m. And like a low PE stock they are cheap for a "bad reason" so Mt Gibson could be also cheap for a "bad reason". Yet I haven't found any evidence of that.

* Potential issues during ramp up of Karlawinda. Karlawinda not meeting production expectations.

* Gold sentiment poor. Looks like these days, no one likes owning gold mining companies versus the alternative as seen by the number of upvotes on those companies.

Reasons for long (or investing)

* Excellent management (one main reason why I continue to hold). I didn't buy for just the gold but also the management and a potential takeover by Regis (which is now unlikely to happen)

* Management has "Skin in the game" with a few on-market buys in the past.

* Management did not overpay for Mt Gibson/Crimson - 40m isn't a lot of money.

* New management has taken over Mt Gibson and could make the project work. Have seen some evidence of this already by the expenditure and studies being released soon.

* Karlawinda has had no hiccups so far and is quite easy to value.

As an aside, the price action printed a big sold green candle which meant buyers were in control throughout the day, sending the share price up 8% to 4.81 which is close to the ATH of 4.85 (that day it also promptly fell back a bit so wasn't as bullish).

I suspect the shorts could be capitulating and realising whatever short thesis they had were wrong. Given what we saw on Friday, If the trend continues we could see new highs.

Feel free to add more thoughts or facts.