Top Stocks Sought by Shorts

Both the variety and volume of stock being sought by short sellers this week has increased significantly, says John Tabacco, CEO of Locatestock.com.

Lehman and Crox remain among the stocks sought most by short sellers, and solar stocks, Canadian Solar and SunPower are in the top 10 on his firm's list. Tabacco also sees large institutional interest in Yahoo, though it is not in the top 10.

Tabacco says volume of stocks sought by shorts at Locatestock.com in the week since last Wednesday averaged 300 million a day, up from an average of 265 million in the month of April.

(What did the shorts want last week? Click to see)

"The list of stocks that are being sought, that are more difficult to find, has increased by about 25 percent in the past week. There could be a few reasons. For one, the market is back to its highs. They see more potential targets that they believe are hyper-inflated right now," he said. "There're more opportunities."

The top five stocks sought in the week ended late yesterday were:

- Dr Pepper Snapple (1.5 million shares sought)

- Crox (1.2 million shares sought)

- Lehman Brothers (1.2 million shares sought)

- General Motors (982,000 shares sought)

- Companhia Vale (873,200 shares sought)

Locatestock.com finds stock for short sellers who are required to have access to the stocks they short. Locatestock is a kind of early warning system for stocks that might become interesting to short sellers.

Tabacco says another stock that there is a great deal of interest in is Arthrocare , which short sellers are willing to pay the highest premium to locate.

Blue Nile also remains in the top 10.

Questions? Comments? [e-mail]