Short Interest on NYSE at Record for Month
Reuters
Short interest on the New York Stock Exchange rose to a record 5.51 billion shares in the month ended May 15, the Big Board said Monday.
This was an increase of 133.6 million shares from the 5.38 billion shares sold short in the period ended April 12 and represented 1.7% of the total shares traded on the exchange, the NYSE said.
Short selling is when investors sell borrowed shares with the hope of buying back the stock at a lower price, returning the stock and profiting from the difference. If stocks rally, short sellers are often forced to buy back into the market to reduce losses, propelling prices higher.
A rise in short interest may indicate that more investors are pessimistic about the market.
