Consumer Discretionary

TSLA short interest is $7.53 billion, 24.9 million shares shorted, 19.9% of the float. Shorts up $1.12 billion in mark-to-market profits today on Tesla‘s 13% price drop, and are now up $783 million for the year.

Netflix Inc (NFLX) short sellers cut their short exposure in 2018 by 37%, covering 8.1 million shares of shorts as they lost $2.04 billion, -34.90%, in mark-to-market P\L. In the first month of 2019 we are seeing a reversal of the trend, with short sellers adding 1.35 million shares of new shorts, +9.7%, in less than three weeks. While NFLX short interest has climbed 45%, to $5.36 billion, short seller’s losses continued to mount this year, down another $1.2 billion in mark-to-market losses in less than a month.

Lululemon Athletica  Inc (LULU) shares short selling is increasing along with its stock price. Shares shorted has increased by 969k, +17%, in 2019 even as LULU’s stock price is up 17% on the year. The trend continues as we are seeing continued short selling over the last week even as LULU breaks through the $140/level for the first time since November 2018. Shares shorted increased by 395k, +6.7%, as LULU’s stock price rose by 4.6%.

MINDBODY, Inc (MB) short sellers will be looking to have their chakra’s realigned after incurring $130 million in mark-to-market losses on MB’s +65% stock price spike on Monday. MB’s stock price rose by $14.11/share on private equity firm’s Vista Equity Partners’ $1.9 billion, $36.50/share, buyout offer. MB short interest is $331 million, 9.24 million shares shorted or 22.48% of its float.

NIO Inc (NIO US) short interest is 41.3 million shares short, 5.37% of shares outstanding and $317.98 million at risk wagering on a stock price decline.

Referred to as the “Tesla of China”, the Shanghai-based company manufactures and sells autos, offering electric vehicles, parts, and battery charging services.

The FAANG stocks are five of the top ten most shorted stocks in the domestic U.S. stock market and because of the sheer size of combined short exposure they represent both risk “Alpha” trades and hedging “Beta” trades.

General Electric Co (GE) short interest is $924.38 million; 137.76 million shares; 1.60% of float; General Collateral stock borrow cost (30 bp fee) & 1.14 Days to Cover.

GE shares shorted is up 2.7 million, +1.99%, in December and up 1.3 million, +0.95%, over the last week.

Lululemon Athletica short interest is at 5.65 million shares shorted for 5.41% of float.

Despite reporting fiscal Q3 earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, a disappointing fourth quarter holiday guidance has the shares trading lower by 13% today.

The weeklong rally from last week’s lows has taken a bite out of the $93.7 billion of mark-to-market profits, +11.12%, short sellers have earned since the beginning of October. Over the last week the S&P 500 index increased by 3.31%, the Nasdaq by 4.3% and the Russell 3000 by 3.23%. The S3 Blacklight platform tracks over 8,000 U.S. domestic equity shorts worth over $825 billion, which incurred mark-to-market losses of $23.3 billion, or -2.86%, over the last week.