Short Interest As A Percentage Of Float

[Matson125]

Hi All,

 

Sears and Autonation take the top 2 spots.  Both are controlled by Ed Lampert and both are buying back shares like crazy.  Also both have deep pockets behind them besides Lampert.  Sears has Tisch and Berkowitz as major holders and for Autonation Bill Gates owns a ton of shares (through Cascades Investments and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and is also representated on the board.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/largest-s-p-500-short-interest-as-a-percentage-of-float.html

 

I personally think whoever is shorting these shares is going to lose, but that is what makes a market!

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[keerthiprasad]

And they're paying us 20%+ annualized to borrow our Sears shares (cash collateralized by PB daily)    

 

Do many brokers pay individual investors for share borrowing?  I'm curious because I would love to buy more Sears and find a way to get paid for it at the same time.

[keerthiprasad]

My experience has been that its a lot harder for individuals to negotiate a good rate than institutions...  we actually set a limit on what we're willing to lend at. 

 

Thanks.  Thats what I had assumed.