Notable Short Interest Activity from September

 

As the market declined, ORTEX data shows that short interest increased considerably across nearly all sectors within the S&P 500. Interestingly, bearish sentiment in technology stocks declined by 1.6% to 866.7 million short shares despite the fact that the tech sector has seen valuations hit the hardest by rising interest rates. Here are ORTEX’s estimates for how aggregate short interest (SI) shares changed for each S&P 500 sector for the month of September.

Sector Starting SI Shares Ending SI Shares % Change
Energy 395,373,308 453,421,755 14.7%
Materials 186,126,796 198,825,390 6.8%
Industrials 464,683,644 471,190,372 1.4%
Consumer Discretionary 826,548,701 851,614,169 3.0%
Consumer Staples 325,306,158 363,768,324 11.8%
Health Care 448,248,968 485,724,406 8.4%
Financials 539,805,834 601,749,134 11.5%
Information Technology 880,493,829 866,702,674 -1.6%
Communication Services 742,512,804 781,706,885 5.3%
Utilities 209,622,769 224,480,830 7.1%
Real Estate 265,623,725 281,970,570 6.2%

Data source: ORTEX estimates.

In the aggregate, S&P 500 short sellers reaped $45.2 billion in profits throughout September, with most of the gains accumulating near the end of the month as the market rout accelerated.

Top short seller gain and loss for September

The stock that saw the biggest short-seller losses in September was Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: REGN), as skeptics lost $307 million in September. The primary catalyst for the stock surge was positive results from late-stage trials for the companies’ anti-blindness treatment, which Regeneron is developing in collaboration with Bayer.

Conversely, the stock that short-sellers profited the most from last month was Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), with bears gaining $1.99 billion. While technology stocks lagged in September, Apple fell following reports that demand for the new iPhone 14 lineup has been underwhelming and that the company would not ask its suppliers to increase production.

Short Squeeze Candidates with the Highest ORTEX Short Scores

Looking ahead, here is a current list of the top short squeeze candidates, based on the highest ORTEX Short Scores. Our ORTEX Short Score uses a multi-factor model that incorporates multiple short-related metrics, with a higher score indicating that the stock is heavily-shorted and has other characteristics that increase the possibility of a short squeeze occurring.

Ticker Stock Market cap USD Industry Short Score Estimated Short Interest % FF
BEEM Beam Global $123,165,856 Capital Goods 95.27 20.84
SFT Shift Technologies $55,568,541 Retailing 94.87 18.06
TIGR UP Fintech Holding Limited $504,897,986 Diversified Financials 94.42 15.27
SMR NuScale Power Corporation $524,809,643 Capital Goods 93.77 25.01
EVGO EVgo $550,556,314 Retailing 92.97 31.87
CRCT Cricut $2,057,427,479 Consumer Durables and Apparel 92.93 20.06
FSR Fisker Inc. $2,255,221,232 Automobiles and Components 92.79 32.56
TTCF Tattooed Chef $410,649,818 Food, Beverage and Tobacco 92.61 29.88
LOCL Local Bounti Corporation $267,550,464 Food, Beverage and Tobacco 92.56 10.10
OMER Omeros Corporation $197,599,547 Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences 92.40 15.87

Data source: ORTEX estimates.

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