Short Sellers Back Off Bearish Stock Bets After $59 Billion Loss
- Stocks have been whipsawed as investors await Fed’s decision
- Traders unsure if stocks can fall even further, LaRusse says
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A counterintuitive trend is emerging in this volatile stock market: Short interest is declining anew as investors cash out of the market.
Short positions have fallen by $12 billion in the third quarter for the Russell 3000 after traders incurred mark-to-market losses of about $59 billion, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, head of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, who collated data through mid-September. That’s a 6% decline on an average short position of $986 billion.