[grey_whiskers]

The short interest on GME was about 140% — meaning there were more shares shorted than the number available.

Naked shorting, in other words. Illegal.

[Alberta's Child]

I may be wrong about this, but I thought I read yesterday that a "naked short" is legal as long as the buyer/speculator can take possession of the shares within a certain period of time (1-2 business days?).

At any rate, it was also explained that the short interest in GME could legitimately exceed 100% if there were large numbers of shares changing hands at multiple times during the course of a trading day -- i.e., Short Seller A borrows 100 shares from Short Seller B, then immediately lends the same 100 shares to Short Seller C, etc.

I may be totally wrong about this, but this is what I understand from reading up on this story yesterday here on FR and in other places.