You bring up some interesting points. Of course, I do not know this as a fact, but IMHO I think the $3 billion secondary stock offering by ABX is indeed letting the big boy shorts out of their positions. Pure speculation on my part, but perhaps the Cartel said to Barrick, OK, you want to play, well here's what you need to do; have a secondary, it will greatly alleviate your outstanding debt issue, and it will solve our short situation. Perhaps a pattern to see if other miners follow suit?