The Good News in Short Interest

• Main Authors: BOEHMER, Ekkehart, Huszar, Zsuzsa R., Jordan, Bradford D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Short sales; Short interest; Short sale constraints; Market efficiency; Business; Finance; Finance and Financial Management
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4664; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2009.12.002
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Stocks with relatively high short interest subsequently experience negative abnormal returns, but the effect can be transient and of debatable economic significance. In contrast, relatively heavily traded stocks with low short interest experience both statistically and economically significant positive abnormal returns. These positive returns are often larger (in absolute value) than the negative returns observed for heavily shorted stocks. Thus, the positive information associated with low short interest, which is publicly available, is only slowly incorporated into prices, which raises a broader market efficiency issue. Our results also cast doubt on existing theories of the impact of short sale constraints.