someconcerns wrote:  

"Ledenfrog,  It's just an observation and may actually not apply here, but large holders of stock do have an incentive to short shares as a means of hedging their risk.  So a large holder may also be a large  shorter.  Not the same risk as naked shorting the shares".

It could be done as a hedge, or to try and accumulate imo.....say someone owns 500K shares, but is short 100K, that investor would be "position long" 400K shares and could cover off by reducing their long position.  

If on the other hand they owned 100K but were short 150K, then they'd be "position short" 50K shares.....and they could cover off part of their position with their long shares, but still would be short 50K.