TrimTabs Reports Net Short Selling of $8.9 Billion in the First Half of January

In the first half of January (Jan 1-15), traders opened $8.9 billion in new short positions on the Russell 3000 stocks, raising the aggregate short interest from 12.1 billion shares ($238 billion / 2.59% of market cap) on December 31st to 12.3 billion shares ($230 billion / 2.66% of market cap) on January 15th. Although the total number of shares short increased in the first half of January, the value of the short interest fell because the market value of those shares fell over this period.

There was net short selling in all ten of the major sectors with Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary receiving the largest short interest inflows of $2.6 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.