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These are the top 10 stocks that hedge funds are betting the most against
These are the top 10 stocks that hedge funds are betting the most against
Carmen ReinickeNov 26, 2019, 01:14 IST
Specialist Dilip Patel, left, and trader Ashley Lara work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Stocks are opening broadly higher on Wall Street as hopes continued to grow that the U.S. and China were moving closer to a deal on trade. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Associated Press
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In its November Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report, Goldman Sachs released a list of the top stocks shorted by hedge funds.
Goldman uses the total dollar value of short interest outstanding to estimate hedge fund short portfolio holdings, according to the report.
"Short positions continue to contribute alpha, lifting the average equity hedge fund to a 10% YTD return," Goldman analysts wrote in the report.
Here are the top 10 stocks that firms are betting against.
Goldman Sachs analyzed 833 hedge funds with $2.1 trillion in gross equity positions - including $700 billion short positions - for its Hedge Fund Trend Monitor report released November 18.
From the analysis, Goldman compiled its "Very Important Short Position List" as a short hedge against the most-loved stocks firms own.
The list contains 50 S&P 500 companies with the highest dollar value of short interest outstanding, excluding companies on the long list and stocks with more than 10% of float-adjusted shares held short. The total dollar value of short interest outstanding is used as an estimate of hedge fund short portfolio holdings, according to the report.
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"Short positions continue to contribute alpha, lifting the average equity hedge fund to a 10% YTD return," Goldman analysts wrote in the report. That still lagged the S&P 500 index return of 27% for the same period.
After a few "sluggish" months, hedge fund performance is sharply rebounding in the fourth quarter, according to Goldman. The "Very Important Short" basket has lagged the S&P 500 by 6 percentage points this year, and stocks with the highest short interest as a share of market cap have returned a median of -5% year-t0-date, according to the report.
Here are the top 10 stocks that represent the largest short positions, ranked in order of increasing value of short interest.
