Despite questions about iPhone sales and a falling stock price, shares sold short in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) fell 34.1 million shares to 74.3 million for the period that ended December 15.

Apple’s share price has dropped over 8% in the past month.

As an example of recent sentiment, Barron’s reported that Drexel Hamilton’s Brian White wrote:

With 97% of the sales reported for the companies in our Apple Monitor, we estimate preliminary revenue during November fell by 6% MoM and weaker than the average increase of 8% over the past nine years. This compares to the 4% MoM increase in November sales during 2014.

Among the theories about sales of the iPhone 6 family are that consumers will wait for the iPhone 7 to be released next year, or that the iPhone 6 family is not an enough of an upgrade from earlier products to turn consumers’ heads. Sales of the iPhone 6 family, which have been strong, negate that theory.

Alternatively, sales in China, which has become Apple’s most important market, might have slowed. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has indicated that without China, Apple’s growth prospects are grim.

However, there must be a large number of optimists about Apple’s near-term future, as short sellers have moved away from its stock.

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