By Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) – Short sellers have been raking it in over the last 30 days as receding bets of an early interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve triggered a selloff in the equity market.
Traders have made a mark-to-market profit of more than $25 billion up to Thursday from covering their short positions, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, more than erasing their $14.8 billion in losses so far this year.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Short sellers were in a bind for most of last year as a raging bull market, partly powered by enthusiasm around AI as well as hopes of an early rate cut, forced them to book nearly $190 billion in losses for 2023.
The current weakness in the market allows them to cover a portion of those heavy losses. The benchmark S&P 500 index is down about 5% so far in April and off by a similar margin from its record…
