you can still buy puts if you want short exposure
15% short interest in GM stock as of 3/31 is total BS. I remember covering a guy who’s short position in a stock was larger than the overall short interest figure provided by the exchange.
I hate when people misquote quality movie lines…
The ban on short sales ended a while ago. You probably couldn’t short it in your personal account because your broker couldn’t locate borrows or the cost was too much (70-80% annualized as mentioned earlier)
The shares are unshortable because they can’t be found. There are some holding the stock to hedge/diversify/as part of asset allocation decision. I have also heard that some institution have internal rules banning making their share lendable. Dunno if anyone can back that up… I am sure some HF are holding as part of their CDS play. Which is also why they want it to go into default.