Short Interest

[HenryTo]

NYSE short interest rose 274 million shares for the month ended February 15 and is now at 8.01 billion shares, just 197 million shares from its all-time high made in October 2002.

NASDAQ short interest, meanwhile, rose 316 million shares for the month ending February 15 and is now at an all-time high of 5.36 billion shares.

This huge short interest should provide "fuel" for the market to propel it upwards when the bottom comes along. But until then, trying to predict a bottom in the stock market based on short interest numbers is not a very rewarding exercise - especially considering the fact that short interest continued to persistently increase even as the stock market continued to decline during the 2000 to October 2002 bear market.