Heritage Financial Covers Its Short Positions

You can see from this graph documenting Heritage Financial's (HBOS) Market Cap out on loan to short investors (%MCOL), that short positions were covered in the U.K. Bank between Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with the MCOL falling from 2.96% to 2.75% . This percentage is nowhere near the HBOS high of 18% MCOL in July, and to put it into context - Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) at some stages peaked to 40%.

The data appears to conflict with the views of the popular press who are suggesting a surge in short-selling. The risks inherent in being a short seller could not be more clear than in the HBOS - Lloyds TSB saw to that.

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Disclosure: None