S&P 500
7,593.20
-0.12%
Dow Jones
50,875.70
-0.39%
Nasdaq 100
30,502.00
+0.04%
Russell 2000
2,902.86
+0.03%
FTSE 100
10,380.60
+0.43%
Nikkei 225
66,824.20
-0.60%

Investing

Short Sellers Make A Big Push Into Tech Stocks (CSCO)(PALM)(SYMC)(RIMM)(DELL)(MSFT)

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

Invalid Image
A number of short sellers are not buying the tech rally and have substantially increased their positions in Microsoft (MSFT), Dell (DELL), Cisco (CSCO), Symantec (SYMC), and Palm (PALM).

Among other major technology stocks, the short position in Blackberry maker RIM (RIMM) rose 17% to 22.6 million shares. The short interest in competitor Palm was up 10% to 42.2 million. More than 33% of the Palm float is now sold short.

But, it was the really large tech companies that experienced the most notable moves.

The short interest in Microsoft rose 23% to 88.8 million shares. Shares sold short in Dell rose 14% to 59.8 million and the short interest in security software company Symantec were up 23% to 30.4 million. All of these are clear bets against a recovery of PC sales and may also represent a gamble that early buzz on Windows 7, the sales of which are supposed to help the computer hardware and software businesses, will not be good.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

This $2.5 Million Portfolio Delivers $14,500 a Month With Three Income Buckets
Drew Wood |

This $2.5 Million Portfolio Delivers $14,500 a Month With Three Income Buckets
Want to Retire In a Tropical Caribbean Paradise on Social Security Only? Here's How.
Drew Wood |

Want to Retire In a Tropical Caribbean Paradise on Social Security Only? Here's How.

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Move Back Into Financial Shares, Ignore Tech: Flee Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) And Amazon (AMZN)

Short sellers sharply increased their gamble that financial stocks would fall based on short selling data from NYSE and Nasdaq…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Nasdaq Short Interest: Big Bets Against Financials And Tech

Nasdaq released short interest in stocks listed on the exchange for the period ending November 15 compared to the numbers…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Rising Nasdaq Short Interest Show Big Bets Against Tech

Rising short interest in tech stocks traded on Nasdaq shows the extent to which investors are willing to bet against…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Mob Big Banks And Telecoms (BAC)(C)(VZ)(T)

Short sellers took huge positions in major banks and telecom companies in the two-week period ending December 15. The short interest…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Prey On The Weak Once Again

The trend among short sellers for the last two months is that they gamble against shares in the weakest public…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Leave Financials, Mixed on Tech

Short sellers reduced their positions in major financial firms and their positions in major tech stocks were divided, based on…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Attack Tech

courtesy of DellShort sellers pressed into tech and Internet stocks during the period that ended November 15, a gamble that…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Short Sellers Move Against Tech

Despite earnings reports which have been largely seen as positive, short sellers increased their bets against tech stocks according to…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Shorts Tear Into Tech With a Vengeance (CSCO)(DELL)(NVDA)(MSFT)(ADBE)(ORCL)(QCOM)(BRCM)(NOK)(HPQ)(TXN)(EMC)(JPM)(C)(BAC)(WFC)(GM)(F)(M)(JWN)(HD)(LTD)(WAG)

Short sellers placed large bets against the stock of tech companies for the period ending on January 15, taking a…

Top Gaining Stocks

MGM Resorts
MGM • Vol: 27,683,097
CDW
CDW • Vol: 3,240,293
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 11,190,990
Gartner
IT • Vol: 2,031,591
Dell Technologies
DELL • Vol: 20,848,965

Top Losing Stocks

FedEx
FDX • Vol: 2,399,340
Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 2,828,165
Qualcomm
QCOM • Vol: 21,186,645
Coterra Energy
CTRA • Vol: 73,319,495
Constellation Energy
CEG • Vol: 11,480,635