NYSE Short Interest Back Near Record Highs

Last night after the close, short interest figures for the New York Stock Exchange [NYSE] were released and showed that short sales as of May 15th rose 2.34% since the end of April. Even though the S&P 500 closed at its highest level since January, short bets remain near all-time highs. This is in contrast to October when short interest was declining leading up to the market's peak, and indicates that many investors are skeptical of the current rally.

click to enlarge

The table below lists the twenty non-Nasdaq stocks in the S&P 500 (Nasdaq short interest figures will be released on May 27th.) with the highest short interest as a percentage of float. Like last month, Consumer Discretionary and Financial stocks are well represented on the list of stocks most heavily shorted. The list of stocks on the list of least shorted come from various sectors. In fact, eight of the ten sectors are represented on this list (no Materials or Consumer Discretionary).

Comments

[Bo Peng:]

I've seen quite a few sucker's rallies. This is by far the stupidest one.

2008 May 22 05:19 PM

[vaduz:]

a very harsh comment by continuum - but in effect this is only a rally in a bear market.............

2008 May 23 02:06 PM