Most Shorted Stocks

Paraphrasing Simon & Garfunkel, “Hello Tesla, my dear friend”, Tesla Inc.’s (TSLA) short interest has once again become a hot topic of conversation as its stock price surged over 30% in October and the stock joined the $1 trillion market cap club. As a result, short sellers are once again deep in the red and the anticipation of a significant short squeeze grows.

Electric Vehicle Manufacturer short sellers are up over $1 billion in mark-to-market profits in mid-day trading may be a bit of a hyperbole as Tesla Inc (TSLA) shorts make up over $900 million of those profits but the reality is that shorting EV stocks in 2021 has been a profitable trade for all but one of the stocks in the sector, Nikola Corp (NKLA).

Short interest in the U.S. market decreased by -$35.4 billion, or -3.2%, to $1.08 trillion over the last 30 days. The traditional Short Interest % of Float for the sector is 5.35%, while the S3 Short Interest % of Float (which includes the synthetic shares created by every short sale in the Float number) is 4.81%. The average U.S. traded stock borrow fee is 0.52% fee. The equities\ADRs with the largest short interest are:

This week the Dow Jones Index Committee announced that Tesla Inc (TSLA) will be added to the S&P 500 prior to the open on December 21, 2010. Tesla’s stock price has rallied since the announcement, gaining +21% as of mid-morning trading. As a result of this surge in its stock price TSLA equity short sellers are down -$4 billion in mark-to-market net-of-financing losses in under four days. TSLA shorts are now down -$30.34 in year-to-date mark-to-market net-of-financing losses and down -$5.03 billion for the month of November.

Apple Inc (AAPL) short sellers have been active ahead of the today’s earnings announcement. AAPL short interest is $10.86 billion, 92.8 million shares shorted, 0.54% of its float and a 40 bps stock borrow cost (general collateral). AAPL is now the third largest short in the U.S. market behind Tesla Inc (TSLA) and Alibaba Group ADR (BABA).

To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, “what a long strange EV trip it’s been”. Tesla Inc’s (TSLA) stock price rocketed up +496% from January to August, but after its 5 for 1 stock split ex-date on August 31^st and $5 billion stock offering on September 1^st its stock price is down -18.3% in the first three days of September and down another -6.3% in today’s mid-day trading. TSLA continues to the largest short by a wide margin not just in the U.S. but also worldwide. TSLA short interest is $24.4 billion; 59.93 million shares shorted; 8.09% short interest % of float. Tesla remains a General Collateral stock borrow at 0.30% fee, the cheapest borrow rate for the easiest to borrow stocks.

After a Judicial Committee Anti-Trust Panel hearing where mega-tech CEO’s Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN), Tim Cook of Apple Inc (AAPL), Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL) and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc (FB) were grilled for several hours on a myriad of topics from anti-competitive practices to protection of personal information they will now face investor scrutiny of their 2^nd quarter earnings. These are some of the most shorted stocks in the U.S. market and used as an overall portfolio Beta hedge and straight out Alpha generator.

Tesla Inc (TSLA) reported its quarterly earnings after the close yesterday and reported $104 million of second quarter profits, its fourth consecutive quarter of profitable GAP profits which was the final hurdle for being considered for inclusion into the S&P 500.  By beating consensus expectations its 2020 rally will probably continue and its short squeeze will not only endure but get even tighter as this year’s massive mark-to-market short losses continue to mount. Tesla short interest is $20 billion; 12.54 million shares shorted; 8.51% short interest % of Float; and a 0.30% stock borrow fee. TSLA is the largest short in the domestic equity\ ADR market.

Tesla continues to be the largest equity short in the domestic market with $19.2 billion of short interest. TSLA recently hit a short interest level of $19.95 billion and is poised to be the first stock to hot the $20 billion short interest threshold. NKLA short interest is $390 million, the fourth largest short in the Construction machinery & Heavy Truck Sector. Both Nikola Corp (NKLA) and Tesla Inc (TSLA) are continued short squeeze candidates for different reasons.