Most Heavily Shorted Russell 1,000 Stocks

Most Heavily Shorted Russell 1,000 Stocks:

Below is a look at the most and least heavily shorted sectors in the market.  As shown, the Telecom sector is the most heavily shorted with the average stock having 8.72% of its float sold short.  Consumer Discretionary ranks second with a SIPF (short interest as a % of float) of 7.46%.  Materials, Consumer Staples, Technology and Energy are all bunched up with SIPFs between 4.8% and 5.1%, while the average SIPF for all stocks in the Russell 1,000 is 4.80%.  Utilities is the least shorted sector, and it may surprise some to see the Financial sector as the second least shorted.

Below is a list of the 40 stocks in the Russell 1,000 with the highest short interest as a percentage of float.  As shown, Tesla Motors (TSLA) is the most shorted Russell 1,000 stock with a SIPF of 45.12%, followed by Deckers Outdoors (DECK), JC Penney (JCP) and Herbalife (HLF).  Some other notables on the list include Pandora (P), US Steel (X), Green Mountain (GMCR), Hasbro (HAS) and Sears (SHLD).
We also highlight each stock's year-to-date percentage change, and there are a lot of big winners and big losers on the list.  Stocks like Safeway (SWY), Freescale Semi (FSL), Pandora (P) and HomeAway (AWAY) have crushed the shorts so far in 2013 by posting big gains.  Stocks like JC Penney (JCP), ITT Educational (ESI), Fusion-io (FIO) and NII Holdings (NIHD) have rewarded the shorts by posting big declines.  

Over at Bespoke Premium, we publish an in-depth analysis (sample here) of the short interest figures that are released twice a month.  Sign up for a 5-day free trial today to see the most recent report: