Semiconductor ETF Question

Why is it SMH shows 4.9M shares outstanding, and yet the short interest shows 11.4M shares short?

SOXX shows 3.8M outstanding and 3.7M short?

What am I missing here? I think these indexes are due for a pullback, but I don't want to buy puts into something I don't understand.
 
I spoke to an ETF expert. He told me an equity MM does not need a locate on a hard to borrow. they can short the ETF in size and hedge with buying the basket of stocks.They have 6 days to submit the basket for creation. Is is one possible explanation. Let's see in a week what the share count is.
 
Interesting. I wonder what would happen if there was a run on the stock?
Probably not a good idea to swim in uncharted waters. But I do think a pullback is in the cards for the semi's. MU reports next week and I think the markets will sell the news, good or bad, sector wide.
Thanks Bob. ;)
 
Since you can always create more units of an ETF the short interest isn't telling you the same thing as it is for a stock. You really need to tally up the outstanding shares of all the companies in the index, multiplied by their weightings, to have an apples to apples comparison of the percent short vs float.
 
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