When the "hyenas" Go to Work

Keep an eye on the stocks that are the favourite target of the short sellers.

- MARCUS PADLEY

Each week the Australian Securi-ties and Investments Commission (ASIC) publishes a list of stocks that have been “sold short”. In basic terms it means stocks that have been sold by people who don’t own them.

It is not that easy to genuinely short a stock. You can do something similar through CFD (contract for difference) accounts but I wouldn’t deal with them, and nor would the big players, the hedge funds and the institutions.

Only some brokers offer the facility to set up a shorting account, because it is generally a time-consuming, more risky activity for the same commission and the retail clients who tend to want to do it are generally more demanding of time and resources and require more monitoring than a good old plodder.