Friday afternoon, Collective Audience, Inc. $CAUD jumped in after hours trading but that might be just the beginning.
Collective Audience, Inc. has allocated 3,762,000 shares of its common stock to Logiq, Inc. as part of their business combination. Logiq, in turn, has announced a special dividend distribution involving these 3,762,000 shares of Collective Audience common stock for Logiq stockholders. Regrettably, some brokerage firms have prematurely or inaccurately reflected this dividend distribution of Collective Audience shares in their clients’ accounts. Logiq is actively investigating this situation and intends to take corrective actions and seek appropriate remedies.
It’s important to note that these apparent sales are, in reality, short positions that will eventually need to be covered. In light of this, the current situation suggests a buying opportunity rather than a sell-off.
By using the after-market rally’s volume as a reference, there remains a substantial number of shares yet to be purchased to cover the short positions. This translates into the potential for a significantly higher price.
A forced short cover, also known as a short squeeze, occurs when the price of a security that has been sold short moves sharply upward. Short selling involves borrowing shares and selling them on the market with the expectation that the price will decline, allowing the short seller to buy back the shares at a lower price and profit from the difference.
However, if the price of the security starts to rise instead of fall, short sellers may face potential losses. To limit these losses, short sellers may need to buy back the borrowed shares at a higher price to close out their short positions. This buying activity can further drive up the price of the security, creating a feedback loop.
In a forced short cover:
- Rising Prices: The price of the security starts to rise unexpectedly, often due to positive news, strong earnings reports, or other factors that attract buying interest.
- Losses for Short Sellers: As the price rises, short sellers incur losses on their positions. The higher the price goes, the more significant the losses for those who have sold the security short.
- Covering Short Positions: Faced with potential unlimited losses, short sellers rush to cover their positions by buying back the shares they initially borrowed and sold. This buying activity adds to the upward pressure on the stock price.
- Feedback Loop: The buying activity of short sellers trying to cover their positions can trigger more buying from other market participants, including those who are not involved in short selling. This creates a feedback loop that rapidly pushes the stock price higher.
- Short Squeeze: The rapid rise in price, fueled by short sellers covering their positions, is commonly referred to as a short squeeze. It can lead to a sharp, sudden, and sometimes volatile increase in the stock’s value.
Investors and traders closely watch for signs of potential short squeezes, as they can provide trading opportunities and contribute to significant price movements in a short period. However, they also pose risks for those who are on the short side of the trade, as the losses can be substantial in the event of a forced short cover.
Collective Audience is a U.S.-based provider of e-commerce and digital customer acquisition solutions that simplifies digital advertising. It provides data-driven, end-to-end marketing through its results solutions or access to data for activating campaigns across multiple channels.
The company’s digital marketing business includes a holistic, self-serve AdTech platform, a proprietary data-driven, AI-powered system that enables brands and agencies to advertise across thousands of the world’s leading digital media and connected TV platforms.
To learn more, visit collectiveaudience.co.
Shayne Heffernan
