Tech97, maybe this news will help too (courtesy of BR) Short
interest in ASND declined 36% last month!
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- January 28, 1998
Short Interest in Nasdaq Issues
Was Down 0.9% in January
By EILEEN KINSELLA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
NEW YORK -- Short interest fell 0.9% in the latest month on the Nasdaq
Stock Market, breaking what had been three consecutive records in the
preceding months.
The total, which includes Nasdaq small-capitalization and
large-capitalization stocks, fell to 1,774,110,126 shares on Jan. 15 from
1,789,729,851 shares in mid-December, according to the National
Association of Securities Dealers, which runs Nasdaq.
On the Nasdaq Small-Cap Market, which is
made up of the 1,370 smaller-cap stocks,
short interest fell 5.7%. It decreased 0.7% for
the 4,124 larger-cap stocks on the Nasdaq
National Market.
Traders who sell securities "short" borrow shares and then sell them,
betting they can profit by buying the stock back later at lower prices.
Short interest is the number of shares that haven't been repurchased for
return to lenders. As such, it is often taken as an indicator of the degree of
negative sentiment among investors in the stocks. Investors also may rely
on short selling for other purposes, including as a hedging strategy related
to corporate mergers and acquisitions, for convertible securities and
options, and for tax purposes.
The Nasdaq National Market's short-interest ratio fell to 2.84 days from
3.13 days in the previous month. The short-interest ratio for the smaller
stocks was 0.78, unchanged from the previous month. The ratio is the
number of trading days that would be required to close out the short
positions through share purchases and is considered a measure of trading
sentiment.
The following companies had the largest decreases in short interest:
Phycor Inc., down 8,754,231 shares to 6,720,412 shares; WorldCom
Inc., down 7,563,661 shares to 63,972,626, and Ascend
Communications Inc., down 7,386,735 shares to 13,104,661.
These companies had the largest increases in short interest: Oracle Corp.,
up 5,328,375 shares to 14,742,021; Biochem Pharma, up 5,246,834
shares to 9,841,808, and Baan Co. NV, up 4,757,442 shares to
10,962,778.
Among companies with the largest short-interest positions: WorldCom
was down 7,563,661 shares to 63,972,626; Intel Corp. was up
3,998,198 shares to 35,501,390; and Tele Communications A Tci Group
was down 440,778 shares to 29,785,407. |
