Some stock ideas just keep on giving. While this is a principle often associated with buy-and-hold investments, the same can apply to popular shorts (bets that a share price will fall). Indeed, over recent weeks, four of the top five stocks in our most-shorted-shares table are names that have flirted with top spots on the list in the past.
Of the top five, Cineword (CINE), Metro Bank (MTRO), Sainsbury (SBRY) and Premier Oil (PMO) all have historical form as popular shorts – although short positions in Premier have actually more than halved from about 20 per cent in recent months.
We’ve previously taken a cue from rising shorts in two of these stocks (Cineworld and Metro Bank) with impressive results. And in the Tips section this week, we’ve been encouraged to look at Sainsbury after a sharp increase in short interest.