This poses a severe financial risk for many companies who are dependent upon the future of natural gas.  We are tracking United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG), Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK), Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN), EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG), and Questar Corp. (NYSE: STR).  Also being tracked are Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX: LNG), Cheniere Energy Partners LP. (AMEX: CQP), Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) and Westport Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT).  The losses are brutal, and the weak stock market is not helping things.

United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) has to be one of the worst exchange-traded products out there because of erosion into roll-dates in the futures contracts.  Still, it is actively traded because investors can easily get exposure to natural gas on an intraday basis this way in their normal equity accounts.  This trust is down 3.6% at $9.97 and a new 52-week low of $9.94 was just hit this morning.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) includes XTO after its huge natural gas acquisition.  Shares are down 1.3% at $76.71 and the 52-week range is $55.94 to $88.23.  Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) is the largest pure-play for natural gas and it recently even started a venture fund to drive nat-gas interests as part of the next energy policy.  Chesapeake is down a sharp 5.3% at $32.42 and the 52-week range is $19.68 to $35.95.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) is down 2.9% at $27.40 and close to 52-week lows as that range is $26.02 to $35.25.  Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) is down 4.3% at $72.55 but its 52-week range is $59.07 to $93.56.  EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) is down 4.1% at $93.96 versus a 52-week range of $85.42 to $121.44. Questar Corp. (NYSE: STR) is down only 1.7% at $17.95 and its 52-week range is $16.03 to $19.06.

Cheniere Energy, Inc. (AMEX: LNG), a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal operation, is down almost 9% at $8.89 versus a 52-week range of $2.30 to $12.81.  Its limited partnership is called Cheniere Energy Partners LP. (AMEX: CQP) and that is down ‘only 3.3%’ at $16.55 versus a 52-week range of $15.05 to $24.54.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) is T. Boone Pickens’ ‘gas station’ play that he wants to serve the nat-gas trucks as the refuel-stop on major trucking routes.  Shares are down more than 4% at $14.58 versus a 52-week range of $11.75 to $17.85.

Westport Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: WPRT) is down 4.5% at $22.74 versus a 52-week range of $14.25 to $28.05.  The company specializes in alternative energy engines for trucks, particular those using compressed natural gas.

Dow Jones was calling for a build of 36 billion cubic feet, but the weekly gain reported by the Energy Information Administration was 44 billion cubic feet and U.S. inventories now sit at 2.758 trillion cubic feet.  What is interesting is that Dow Jones noted that this inventory build is still 2.4% under a 5-year average and more than 6% under year-ago levels.

Right now it feels like trying to find the bottom in selling levels is a bit like catching a falling knife.  It is just not very rewarding.  Maybe a bottom is close and maybe not in these stocks, but one thing is a sure bet: Natural gas dipping back under $4.00/tcf does pose a severe financial risk to the business viability of producing and even transporting natural gas.

Natural gas is not alone in its misery today.  Oil is back under $91.00 per barrel as well.

JON C. OGG

Natural gas prices at the Henry Hub have been rising, coming within a hair’s breadth of $5.00/million BTUs, a level last seen in August 2010. The low prices have slowed the growth in onshore drilling for natural gas in the US, at the same time that it is encouraging some utilities to look at natural gas as a fuel for baseload power generation.

The abundant supplies of US natural gas available throughout the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’ or ‘fracing’, has swept the industry, leading to massive amounts of new gas discoveries and production, as well as to lower prices. The industry needs prices to rise to around $7-$8/million BTUs in order for it to make a decent profit, but with prices stuck below $5, that day appears to be well into the future.

Investing in natural gas purely as a commodity play is best left to experienced traders. There are, of course, other ways. Four funds we’ll look at here are United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG), First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (NYSE: FCG), SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production (NYSE: XOP), and PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services Fund (NYSE: PXJ).

United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) invests in near-month natural gas NYMEX futures contracts. In the past 52-weeks, the fund has lost more than -25% of its NAV, but with $1.9 billion in assets it is the largest natural gas fund available. Because it invests only in near-month contracts, UNG must roll-over its contracts every month, in effect selling its about-to-expire position and purchasing new contracts for the following month. In a contango market, where future-month contract prices exceed near-month contract prices, such a strategy loses money every month. Thus, even when natural gas prices rise, UNG can lose money because the future contract price will rise at least as quickly as the current price.

Why own such a thing? Primarily as a hedge against inflation and almost no correlation with equity prices. Pretty small beer, all things considered. UNG is trading at $11.93 at about mid-day, within a 52-week range of $10.02-$17.68.

The First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund (NYSE: FCG) tries to replicate the ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index by investing at least 90% of its funds in the common stock of that index’s companies. The fund’s top five holdings are Stone Energy Corp. (NYSE: SGY), Petrohawk Energy Corp. (NYSE: HK), Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG), Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN), and SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD). These five comprise 18.95% of the fund’s holdings. The fund’s assets total $586 million and it is trading today at $21.19, within a 52-week range of $14.39-$23.75. In the past year, the fund has gained more than 30%.

The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production (NYSE: XOP) invests in equities  of companies that explore for and produce oil and natural gas. The fund’s top five holdings are Cabot, W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: WTI), Petrohawk, EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT), and Southwestern Energy. The fund’s assets total $908 million. The fund is trading at $56.55 today, within a 52-week range of $37.44-$65.76. Over the past year, the fund has gained about 42%.

The PowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services Fund (NYSE: PXJ) tracks an equity index called the Dynamic Oil Services Intellidex. It invests at least 80% in common stock of oil and gas services companies, and may invest up to 90% of its assets in the Intellidex index companies. Its five largest holdings are Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI), Nabors Industries, Ltd. (NYSE: NBR), Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL), FMC Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FTI), and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (NYSE: DO). The fund’s assets total about $247 million and it is trading today at $23.35, in a 52-week range of $13.98-$26.84. The fund has gained about 66% in the past year.

A reasonable conclusion from this quick survey is that investing in natural gas producers pays off nicely, but the real gains have come in the services sector. Holding natural gas futures has very limited appeal, but plenty of investors do it.

Growth in the services sector is likely to continue as drilling picks up both onshore in the US and offshore in the US Gulf of Mexico. As for the producers, Cabot, Stone, and Petrohawk are all involved in natural gas plays that produce significant amounts of liquids. And that’s where the money is, not in gas. Gas may become worth more over the next year or so, but the price differential between liquids and gas is never likely to close again.

Paul Ausick

Stocks are higher but not with the fervor many might have hoped for with the DJIA only up 40 points and with the S&P 500 up about 3 points.  The move so far is having the following impact:

• Crude Oil is down $1.57 or 1.4% at $112.36 per barrel;
• Natural Gas is down $0.04 or almost down 0.9% at $4.72;
• Gold was down about $1.00 around $1,555.00 per ounce;
• Silver was where the biggest drop was with a $3.14 drop (-6.5%) at $45.46/oz.
• 10 Year T-Note 3.297% (up 0.03)
• 30-Year T-Bond 4.403% (effectively flat)

We are tracking the key exchange traded funds and exchange traded products on the news immediately after the open of the markets:

iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) down 6.6% at $43.82 and ETFS Physical Silver Shares (NYSE: SIVR) is down 9.2% at $43.50; SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) is down 0.55% at $151.53. Silver had already been indicated down considerably before the Bin Laden news broke.

United States Oil (NYSE: USO) is down less than 0.4% at $44.99 and the nearly uncorrelated ETP for gas of the United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is down 0.1% at $12.05.

Whatever the currency impact was is slowing, at least as far as the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (NYSE: UUP) is concerned, as it is now down 0.1% at $20.93.  The impact has also been muted in the anti-bond ETF of the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (NYSE: TBT).

Unfortunately there is only so much that one man’s death, even Osama Bin Laden, is worth.  The new fear is that this news will embolden many of the splint terror groups to increase their activities in the days, weeks, and months ahead.  This begs a question… Is the Bin Laden death what the Fed would call “transitory”?

JON C. OGG

Nuclear related shares are getting pounded now as politicians and activist groups are calling for a significantly geared down approach to nuclear approach now.  So who wins?  Think solar.  Solar power plants melting down only causes black goo on the ground.  Coal… who cares if it is dirty at this point compared to nuclear fallout.  Wind and other alternative energy… Same for solar.  Natural gas is back… Many power plants run on this, and if nuclear power gets curbed too much ahead then natural gas is going to benefit just like coal does.  Here are eight ETFs that are trading higher as a direct result of the Japan quake knocking out the nuclear sector.  Oh year, a “Short Japan Fund”…

Market Vectors Coal ETF (NYSE: KOL) is up 1.75% at $47.01 against a 52-week range of $28.35 to $49.80.

Guggenheim Solar (NYSE: TAN) is up 6.3% at $7.83 against a 52-week trading range of $6.02 to $9.34. There is also the  Market Vectors Solar Energy ETF (NYSE: KWT) up 7.1% at $12.39 against a 52-week trading range of $9.04 to $14.33. PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (NYSE: PBW) is up 0.9% at $10.00 against a 52-week range of $4.00 (low from Flash Crash) to $11.42.

ProShares UltraShort MSCI Japan (NYSE: EWV) is up a whopping 15.6% at $39.30 against a 52-week range of $29.83 to $52.78… This one is 200% the inverse of the daily performance of the MSCI Japan Index.

United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) is now up only 0.25% at $10.42 but this one was up as high as $10.78 earlier today.  The iPath DJ-UBS Natural Gas TR Sub-Index ETN (NYSE: GAZ) is also now ‘only’ up 0.57% at $7.09 but it was up as high as $7.31 earlier today.  Finally, the Teucrium Natural Gas ETV (NYSE: NAGS) is still up 3.1% at $22.97 but this one has extremely thin trading volume. 

Japan is one of those situations that is unfolding as a tragedy and it will have an impact on GDP ahead.  These are just the financial winners in exchange-traded products as far as what the stock market vote is today.

JON C. OGG

The United States Natural Gas Fund, LP effected a two-for-one reverse unit split after the close of trading on Tuesday and the and post-split units began trading this morning.  Of course this did not just exactly happen overnight.  The reverse-split was announced in a press release on February 16, 2011.

As a result of the reverse-split, each two pre-split units automatically were exchanged for one post-split unit.  In short, 100 old units were converted into 50 new units.  The price roughly doubled as well to reflect the higher price, hence the lag on Yahoo! today.  This is no criticism of Yahoo! because this often happens in split and reverse split shares and units.  It also happens much more frequently around dividend ex-dates in shares, funds, and units.  Frankly, these are exchange discrepancies more than errors.  The reason for the change is that there was a change in CUSIP numbers to 912318110.

Before the reverse-split there were 447,200,000 units outstanding with a net asset value of $5.16; now there are 223,600,000 units outstanding and the adjusted net asset value was increased to $10.31.

After looking around elsewhere at other financial sites, there were more discrepancies out there in the trading ranges and average volume, and more.

JON C. OGG

Many investors have tried and tried to make their natural gas bet on the ETF-ETN tracking natural gas via the United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG).  That has actually worked of late, although this exchange-traded product has long suffered from rolling issues and price erosion followed by mistrust from many investors.  Still, it trades over 20 million shares a day.

The problem facing all natural gas producers is low gas prices. According to the US Energy Information Administration, natural gas spot prices at Henry Hub have fallen from $5.83/thousand cubic feet in January 2010 to $3.71/thousand cubic feet at the end of November. Prices are up since then, closing yesterday at $4.17/thousand cubic feet, due mostly to colder weather.

Low prices are a function of booming production from US shale gas fields like the Haynesville, Barnett, and Eagle Ford. Shale gas fields reach peak production very quickly and spit out high daily volumes of gas. Producers have been forced to drill more wells because they are bound by lease agreements that would require them to give up their leased land if they do not develop the lease. The companies drill to maintain their leases, keeping a tight lid on the price of gas. As a result, gas prices are not expected to improve much above $5/thousand cubic feet in 2011.

Here’s a short table showing the tickers, the current price, the mean target price from Thomson Reuters, the implied upside to that target, and the 52-week trading range.  We’ll add some color after the chart.

in cash plus a pro-rated share of 41 million units of Atlas Pipeline Holdings, L.P. (NYSE:AHD). The Atlas Pipeline units are valued at $5.09/unit, bringing the total per share payout to Atlas Energy shareholders to $43.34/share.

 
The Marcellus shale play is one of the most productive shale gas regions in the US, and its location near the population centers of the eastern seaboard makes it an even better location. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) spent more than $40 billion to acquire the natural gas assets of XTO Energy, about 17% of which are located in the Marcellus shale. About half of Atlas’s daily production comes from the Marcellus shale.

 
Last April Atlas concluded a joint venture deal with India’s Reliance Industries under which Reliance agreed to pay about $340 million in cash in exchange for 40% of Atlas’s Marcellus shale production and to spend up to another $1.36 billion over the next five and a half years to pay for additional drilling. In today’s announcement, Chevron said that it would assume Atlas’s role as operator of the joint venture and maintain its 60% participation in the deal. Reliance has agreed to continue with its part of the deal as well.

 
First the Exxon acquisition and now the Chevron purchase underscore the growing importance of natural gas to what we’ve always thought of as “Big Oil.” Adding trillions of cubic feet of natural gas to Exxon’s, and now Chevron’s, reserves is really the only way for these companies to replace their annual production. And because oil companies depend so heavily on reserves replacement to prop up share prices, adding barrels of oil equivalent in the form of natural gas is necessary.

 
The current low prices for natural gas will weigh on Chevron’s acquisition, just as they have on Exxon’s. But that’s a short term problem that will work itself out over time. Failing to replace production is a far more serious problem for both Exxon and Chevron.

 
Chevron shares have dropped about -1.3% this morning on heavy volume. Atlas shares are up about 33% on more than 15 times normal volume. As if in support of the Chevron-Atlas tie-up, the United States Natural Gas ETF (NYSE:UNG) is also up about 1% this morning.

 
Paul Ausick

Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD) is going to be one to watch after Barron’s touted it this weekend.  “Big Gains Brewing at Anheuser-Busch InBev by CHRISTOPHER C. WILLIAMS Wall Street’s doubts about the beer behemoth are fast disappearing as the Belgian-based brewer cuts costs and crafts plans to boost growth in the U.S. and globally.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a corporate event om September 1 with new iPod updates and potentially updates on the AppleTV initiative expected.

Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) was listed as the #1 chart in the IBD 100 over the weekend.  At $18.39, the 52-week trading range is $7.44 to $18.69.

Continental Airlines and UAL Corp. (NASDAQ: UAUA) managed to secure DOJ approval despite the dominance that this merger will give the company over its competitors and over its customers.  Shares are likely to trade up marginally for Continental and UAL, although despite this merger being bad for America it was always expected to receive approval.

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) is indicated higher after Sanofi-Aventis confirmed a $69.00 bid to the company.  The problem is that Genzyme is not necessarily playing along.  Management seems stuck on the old $80+ high at a time that the company is still recovering from its virus and manufacturing issues.  If history is an example, we’d expect Genzyme to remain aloof.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is trading as though a worse warnings is coming from the company than what Intel forecast on Friday.  SanDisk shares fell 4.4% to $34.19 with more than double volume as it traded over 29 million shares.  This one we pegged for InvestorPlace.com over a week ago for a 200%+ option gain that we recommended then rolling down to a lower strike with a portion of the profits.  That may still happen.

3PAR, Inc. (NYSE: PAR) closed at $32.46 on Friday, $2.46 above the current H-P bid of $30.00 per share.  The premium is here as there is a bidding war and as investors feel that Dell will raise its offer as it has been doing so far.  3PAR was deemed an expensive buyout at $18 and then at $24, and now it is a praised deal.

United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) saw an unbelievable amount of put activity in the Sept-2010 and OCT-2010 $6.00 PUTS…. more than its open interest of 44,000+ and 53,000+ contracts respectively.  Total volume in the $6.00 PUTS was over 61,000 contracts and over 75,000 respectively.  The ETF closed at $6.24, down over 3% on weak natural gas demand while oil rose steadily on Friday.  It looks like the bet is on that nat-gas is heading lower.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is a turnaround that won’t turn around, but it saw a drop in short interest as some bets may have also been there against currency issues.  At June 30 settlement date the short interest was down 10% to 26.54 million from 29,654,276 shares from June 30.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) is still a “brand which could disappear”, yet it actually saw a drop of 7.4% in its short interest to 66.37 million shares on June 30 settlement versus 71,653,753 shares on June 15.  With this being under $1.00 now, it may be harder for some to short the stock per broker margin rules.

Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is one that saw a rise in short selling, which also coincides with our “brands which could disappear” thesis: June 30 had 4.71 million shares short, up 12.3% from the 4,193,322 listed on June 15.  The saga continues.

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) is another of our “stocks that could double” per our picks, but it is still wobbling directionless for now.  June 30 settlement was 19.649 million shares versus June 15′s 18,397,733 shares short and up again from May 28′s 17,441,727 shares short.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) is still also a stock which could double, but it has a monster short interest that is only a tad less large monster compared to mid-June.  The June 30 settlement short interest was 432.8 million shares, down 13% from the 497,392,313 shares short at June 15.

DryShips Inc. (NYSE: DRYS) is the ultimate coin toss, but an active short seller candidate from time to time… The short interest fell 2.7% to 34.91 million shares as of June 30 settlement versus 35.89 million recorded on June 15.

We have taken a look at the moves and the changes in short interest, and then added in on color on each where applicable.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is one that just isn’t going anywhere and is in a perpetual turnaround.  And the pressure in Europe which built up probably only added more fuel to the short sellers.  This was one of the worst performing of the ADRs during that troubled period.  before things stabilized. At June 15 settlement date the short interest was 29,654,276 shares, which is up 8.9% from 27,239,231 on May 28.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) is one of the ongoing brands which could vanish.  The company has even gone so far as to warn that it could be facing bankruptcy protection.   This period was brutal on the stock price as it went from over $1.00 down to under $0.90 and things have been even worse since the June 15 settlement date at Ambac.  It may even feel like a mystery that the short interest did not grow.  The June 15 short interest was listed as 71,653,753 shares, down by -7.6% from 77,529,115 on May 28.

Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE: BBI) has the two classes of shares, although not for long… It is also trying for a reverse split to keep its shares above the $1.00 NYSE minimum.  The selling was mixed here, which is surprising considering how many traders and companies believe it could implode.  We have it as one of the brands that could disappear.   June 15 “A Shares”: 5,925,502 was up 16% from 5,108,280 on May 28. “B Shares”: 23,666,143 was down -17.2% from 28,588,235 on May 28.

Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is in the doghouse and short sellers believe it could topple into bankruptcy protection.  It is yet another one of our brands that may disappear.  June 15: 4,193,322 was up 21.3% from 3,457,975 on May 28.

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) is still one of our “stocks that could double” per our picks, but the company has to find its footing and may need new blood in order for this to happen.  June 15: 18,397,733 was up 5.5% from 17,441,727 on May 28.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) is another of our “stocks which could double” and its shares have been bouncing around at all prices with the market.  Pershing Square’s Ackman also disclosed how large his stake was.  Shorts got more aggressive though.  June 15: 497,392,313 shares short was up 14.7% versus 433,618,690 on May 28.

DryShips Inc. (NYSE: DRYS) may have that Greek issue and it may just have that transportation issue.  The shorts came out more against it, although it could always be part of those offerings it loves to do from time to time.  June 15: 35,894,737 shares was up by +11.4% versus 32,224,218 on May 28.

Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) were two surprises considering the awful woes that have set in after the FHFA is seeking the delisting of the common and preferred shares from NYSE now.  These are also still two candidates for a disappearing brand.  Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (NYSE: FRE) at June 15 was 51,679,910 shares short, down only -0.3% from 51,840,580 on May 28.  Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) at June 15 was 135,468,832 shares short and down only by -0.2% versus the 135,771,853 on May 28.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) is another one that the short sellers got right.  It has such a small percentage of smartphones that Nokia is becoming more synonymous with poor peoples’ phones.  Its earnings took shares down hard, so short sellers cleaned house here against the Finns.  June 15: 81,384,713 shares short was up over 27% versus 63,888,089 on May 28.

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) is probably just arbitrage bets and other shorters covering now that it is being acquired.  Palm’s June 15 short interest was 26,680,444 shares, which is down by -14.2% from the 31,109,807 on May 28.

PMI Group, Inc. (NYSE: PMI), the company that borrowers love to hate, was 21,671,711 shares in the short interest on the June 15 settlement date versus 17,975,874 on May 28.

Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ: BPOP) has become much more actively traded than in months before due to that large offering it had.  Much of this change may be covering of bets and exiting arbitrage spreads for those traders.  At June 15 its short interest was listed as 19,168,645 shares, down almost 25% from the 25,518,384 on May 28.

Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) is another one of the “stocks which could still potentially double” per our picks, but the company is severely hamstrung and the new blood that has been brought in only just recently saw it post a narrower loss than expected. June 15 short interest was 23,654,512 shares, up 14.2% from the 20,718,870 listed by NYSE on May 28.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is a perpetual tug of war between short sellers who believe it can implode and those who want to see it recover to its glory days.  The June 15 short interest was a whopping 227,767,942 shares, up 6.2% from the 214,514,322 counted on May 28.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) saw many shorts exit here as it has the only real 4G phone per the news.  The problem is that the news is very mixed over how well these are really selling.  Still, short sellers decided that maybe they should not be in the fight.  June 15: 72,613,518 shares in the short interest is high, but that is down a sharp 27.8% from the 100,520,184 shares short on May 28.

United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSE: UNG) is the ETF that traders probably hate more than any other energy commodity ETF product because of the tracking errors and roll-dates that many believe take this one gradually down closer to ZERO… Interestingly enough, the June 15 short interest was 10,833,137 shares, which was actually down by -5.9% from the 11,512,906 counted on May 28.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) is another highly controversial low-priced stock that has millions of customers and has historically seen many traders and investors bet against its survival.  The short interest here is muted compared to the past, and the stock was actually hitting 52-week highs recently.  The June 15 short interest was 2,605,495 shares, down by -8.7% from the 2,852,429 shares counted on May 28.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG