Shorts shouldn't even be allowed to have any leverage on Short ETF. Shorting and hedging is a privillege. . 24.05 billion short positions. 24.05 billion isn't a drop in the bucket considering wall street fees yearly total is only 20 billion. The market isn't that liquid to handle 24.05 billion of liquidity taken out in the open market. The float of the market is less than maybe 3% or less of outstanding shares even less than 1% in some cases. The entire annual float of the entire market or annual liquidity has been shorted. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Should-Short-ETFs-be-etfguide-14524876.html