After the close today, the New York Stock Exchange released short interest levels for the month of May, and as the chart below shows, short interest surged by 7% to a new all time high. While the record level of short interest is not a new story, this month was somewhat unique in that it was the tenth largest monthly increase in short interest over the last 16 years. Also notable is the fact that in the last three months, we have seen two monthly increases that qualify in the top ten overall (March 2007). It is hard to imagine that investors are overly bullish with short interest hitting record highs month after month.
Not accurate unless you detrend by taking out the increasing number of securities trading on the NYSE.
Posted by: Babak | May 21, 2007 at 06:34 PM
Since the bull market began the number of issuers has increased by 7% and short interest has increased by 37%.
As a percentage of shares outstanding, short interest also hit a record at 3.1% of all outstanding shares.
Posted by: Paul Hickey | May 21, 2007 at 06:46 PM