Negative Sign: Short Selling of Gastar’s Stock Increases 12%

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negative signShort selling of Gastar Exploration stock has increased--certainly not a positive sign for the company. From time to time we bring you a story, like this one, that on the surface appears to be of interest only for investors rather than landowners or companies that sell goods and services to the shale industry (supply chain). MDN does have a number of investors who subscribe, but if you think stories like this one are only for investors, you are mistaken. Landowners, supply chain companies, even those in elected government are all affected and should pay attention. Short selling is when investors buy stock on a gamble that the stock will decrease--not increase--in price. When a company's stock decreases in price, the company has a lower market capitalization and it makes it (a) harder to borrow money, and (b) if they can borrow the money, they have to do it at a higher interest rate, making business activities less profitable. If we cut out all of the connections from point A to point B and just boil it all down: when a driller's stock price decreases significantly, it means less drilling and financial instability for the company, which does not benefit landowners and the supply chain companies that want to sell goods and services to that driller. In other words, it means less royalties, less business opportunities, less jobs and less economic impact. That's why we report stories like the following...

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