Short-sellers, or traders betting against Tesla, have been burned badly by the stock's parabolic rise. On Monday, they were down more than $8 billion in mark-to-market losses, and the stock has continued to climb. Now, investors are watching for an epic short squeeze, or event where short-sellers are forced to cover their shares and exit the short position en masse.
But that might not happen for Tesla, according to Ihor Dusaniwsky, the managing director of predictive analytics at S3. "It is more likely to be a continuous slow decline in shares shorted rather than a sudden abrupt plunge," he wrote in a note Monday."This is due to the amount of short hedging that is being done to offset Tesla convertible bond and option exposure."
Here are the top 10 most-shorted stocks in the US, ranked in order of lowest to highest short interest, according to data from S3 Partners.