Short sellers open fewer new bets

Dusseldorf Betting on falling stock prices has been an almost surefire way to make money so far this year. The market-wide US index S&P 500 has lost around 20 percent since the beginning of the year. But short sellers who benefited from this development are now becoming more cautious, as an analysis by data provider S3 Partners shows.

According to this, two-thirds fewer short bets were opened in June compared to the previous month. While short sellers made $20 billion worth of new short bets in the US market in June, it was $65 billion in May. With these bets, short sellers can try to profit directly from falling prices or to hedge against price risks.