I really appreciate GAC posting the short interest numbers twice monthly. I think it's very helpful.

There are two ways in which the short interest is helpful to me. First, is the size of the short interest. If it is quite large relative to average daily volume than I feel good because that's potential demand that will eventually become real-time demand for the stock. It's untapped demand on reserve because you can't stay short forever!

Secondly, the change in the short interest relative to the volume traded over the same time interval is useful for estimating how much of the price action observed over the interval was influenced by the actions of short sellers. E.g. if price has been rising and the change in short interest is not signifcant relative to the total volume traded, then I feel good because the price is rising independently of the short seller's sentiment.  On the other hand I think a short covering rally is not as healthy for the price as a rally driven my longs accumulating and raising their ask.

Again thanks to GAC for posting the numbers!