September 27, 2012, 9:34 AM
With strong returns during most of the third quarter, the average investor could be forgiven if his thoughts strayed from short positions and opportunities they might provide to make a buck.
But now, as the mood has soured sharply from earlier this year and as the third quarter draws to a close it’s worth taking a look at stocks investor have bet against heavily.
Activity in these stocks may pick up Thursday and Friday too, as money managers look to do some window dressing, putting on profitable positions or dumping losers at the end of the quarter in order to look good for their clients.
With all that in mind, here’s a list of the ten most-shorted U.S. stocks, compliments of
TradingFloor.com:
Among the largest changes in short interest, Kayak Software
/quotes/zigman/10960880/quotes/nls/kyakKYAK-0.06%, an online travel agency, has seen massive interest from short sellers since its IPO last summer. The company is in a very competitive market, as quite a few online travel agencies are already available. Currently the stock has 35 percent of its float sold short, and is a likely candidate for next month’s top ten list.
Among stocks experiencing reduced interest from shorters are Gap
/quotes/zigman/227242/quotes/nls/gpsGPS-0.16%, Zynga
/quotes/zigman/7720406/quotes/nls/zngaZNGA+0.53% and Sprint Nextel
/quotes/zigman/240259/quotes/nls/sS+2.45%. Gap has surprised most analysts on its significant growth in sales over the past few months, and its stock has already gained 91 percent YTD.
Out of the top ten most shorted stocks in September, three are new to the list. These are Ubiquiti Networks
/quotes/zigman/6963775/quotes/nls/ubntUBNT-6.40%, Vera Bradley vra
/quotes/zigman/623685/quotes/nls/vraVRA-0.62%and Lihua International liwa
/quotes/zigman/114188/quotes/nls/liwaLIWA-0.28%.
