Shorts Digging In Their Heels In Front of Fiscal Cliff

Short interest numbers for the NYSE are reported for the period of settlement date November 30th. Short interest numbers have increased to 13,670,086,010 from 13,604,232,418 shares for an increase of 65,853,592 shares or 0.48% with 1967 advancers and 1517 decliners and seen more advancers than decliners in 38 of the last 75 initial reporting periods.

During this period on a trade date basis (11/12 to 11/27), the S&P rose 1.37%. The conclusion is shorts continue to add as the market rallied. There have been increases in seven of the last fourteen reporting periods. The next short interest collection covers from 11/27 to 12/11, the S&P 500 rose 2.07% with Tuesday cementing the change.

Short interest numbers for NASDAQ are reported for the period of settlement date November 30th. Short interest numbers were 7,779,511,734 shares from 7,585,572,651 shares for an increase of 193,939,083 shares or 2.56%. There were 1597 increases and 917 decreases. In the last 75 reporting periods, NASDAQ has seen more advancers than decliners in 42 of the 75 last reporting periods.

Dedicated short sellers lost -0.43% in October, as reported by www.hedgeindex.com and now YTD -12.66% while the index made 7.32% in 2011. For 2010 this index was down -17.79%. For 2009 this style lost -14.62%. In 2008, short sellers lost -1.52%. In 2007 short sellers made 4.14%.

Later today we will post some selective comments once Phil Erlanger updates his comments as well.