Short interest figures for the end of July were released after the close on Wednesday, so we have just updated our regular report on short interest trends for the market, sectors, and individual stocks for clients.  Below we wanted to quickly highlight the stocks with the highest levels of short interest as a percentage of float.  The list below shows the 16 stocks in the S&P 1500 that have more than 40% of their free-floating shares sold short.  Through early Thursday, the 16 stocks listed below were getting slaughtered with an average decline of 7.7% (median: -4.47%) compared to a decline of 0.78% for the S&P 1500.

Of the 16 names listed, just four stocks are up so far this month, and none of them are up even 5%.  To the downside, there is no shortage of big losers with six stocks down more than 10%, including Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) and Lannett (LCI) which are both down more than 20% in less than eight trading days.  If there is one trend that has been constant nearly all year it is that holding stocks with high short interest has been a recipe for big losses.

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