Reading Short Interest A large increase or decr
Post# of 5949
A large increase or decrease in a stock's short interest from the previous month can be a very telling indicator of investor sentiment. Let's say that Microsoft's short interest increased by 10% in one month. This means that there was a 10% increase in the number of people who believe the stock price will decrease. Such a significant shift provides good reason for investors to find out more. We would need to check the current research and any recent news reports to see what is happening with the company and why more investors are selling its stock.
A high short-interest stock should be approached with extreme caution but not necessarily avoided at all cost. Short sellers (like all investors) aren't perfect and have been known to be wrong from time to time.
In fact, many contrarian investors use short interest as a tool to determine the direction of the market. The rationale is that if everyone is selling, then the stock is already at its low and can only move up. Thus, contrarians feel that a high short-interest ratio (which we will discuss below) is bullish - because eventually there will be significant upward pressure on the stock's price as short sellers cover their short positions (i.e. buy back the stocks they borrowed to return to the lender). (Learn more in Can Perpetual Contrarians Profit As Traders?)
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/082201.asp