Tesla, Ford, Wayfair Lead Americas in Most Shorted Stocks in 2023, Hazeltree Year in Review Report Finds

Technology and financials stand out as sectors most shorted in 2023

NEW YORK & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hazeltree, a leader in active treasury and intelligent operations technology for the alternative asset industry, today released its 2023 Year in Review Report, a listing of the top 5 securities most shorted by hedge funds in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions in the large-, mid-, and small-cap ranges.

“Hazeltree’s position within the capital markets ecosystem allows us to provide comprehensive and unique data for broader general availability,” said Stephanie Miller, CEO of Hazeltree. “Our inaugural annual review builds upon our monthly report updates and provides uniquely insightful market color for both seasoned professionals and newcomers to the alternative investment industry.”

In the Americas, Tesla, Ford, and Wayfair topped the Americas large-cap list for most shorted stocks, while in EMEA, Siemens Healthineers, Fastighets AB, and Alstom were among the top five most shorted. In APAC, Commonwealth Bank of Australia stood out as the most shorted in the large-cap category.

Hazeltree’s Year in Review Report tracks shorting activity in crowdedness, a metric of relative crowding based on the number of funds shorting the security, and institutional supply utilization, an indicator of how “hot” a security is in terms of the supply-demand dynamic. The report also highlights the sectors that were most shorted in 2023, based on the median of the daily total short market values allocated to those sectors and industries by the community.

Other highlights from the 2023 report include:

Americas

• 2023’s most shorted stocks featured familiar names like Tesla, Ford, and Wayfair – with Hazeltree Crowdedness Scores of 98, 88, and 73, respectively. These three stocks also all appeared as most shorted stocks in 2022 – with Hazeltree Crowdedness Scores of 99 (Tesla), 79 (Ford) in large-cap, and 99 (Wayfair) in mid-cap.
• In the small-cap category, the 2023 list featured a completely new top five shorted securities not seen in the prior year’s list – names like Sunnova (95), Fisker (85), and 3D Systems (84).
• The most shorted sector in large-cap was technology, consumer cyclicals in mid-cap, and healthcare in small-cap.

EMEA

• 2023’s most shorted stocks featured names like Siemens Healthineers, Fastighets AB, Alstom, and Meyer Burger, all of which appeared in Hazeltree’s monthly Shortside Crowdedness Report at points throughout the year.
• Notably, 2023’s most shorted EMEA securities were almost a completely new list from the year prior. The only name to have appeared in both 2022 and 2023 is Delivery Hero, which was the top shorted security in the mid-cap category with a Hazeltree Crowdedness Score of 99.
• The most shorted sector in large-cap was financials, consumer cyclicals in mid-cap, and consumer cyclicals in small-cap.

APAC

• 2023’s most shorted securities also featured a completely new list across large-cap compared to 2022, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia being the most shorted (99) last year.
• In mid-cap, the three most shorted stocks in 2023 – Rakuten (99), Sharp (85), and Tokyo Electric (73) – were also the most shorted stocks in 2022 – Sharp (95), Tokyo Electric (91), and Rakuten (82). In small-cap, Money Forward (92) also appeared in the 2022 list of most shorted stocks with a Hazeltree Crowdedness Score of 78.
• The most shorted sector in large-cap was technology, technology in mid-cap, and consumer cyclicals in small-cap.

“High inflation and interest rates could be behind short sellers’ focus on consumer cyclical stocks,” said Tim Smith, managing director, data insights at Hazeltree. “It was no surprise to see Tesla top the list of most shorted stocks in 2023 after seeing it lead the pack in our monthly Shortside Reports.”

The Year in Review Report tracks shorting activity in two different metrics:

• Hazeltree Crowdedness Score: This score is a metric of relative crowding based on the number of funds shorting the security. A value of 99 indicates the number of funds shorting this security is high, compared to the number of funds shorting other securities within the same region and market capitalization group. Specifically, using their short fund count, securities are binned into 100 (0-99) equally sized bins for each day, region, and market capitalization group. The median of these daily Crowdedness Scores is used to find the most shorted securities of the year.

• Institutional Supply Utilization: The percentage of the available supply of the security at lending agents, third-party lenders, and beneficial owners that is being lent out to prime brokers and asset managers. The institutional supply utilization rate is an indicator of how “hot” a security is in terms of the supply-demand dynamic. It is possible to see 100% utilization of a security’s availability. The average utilization is the median of the daily values.

The data sourced in this report comes from Hazeltree’s proprietary securities finance platform, and covers approximately 15,000 global equities across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. The data is aggregated and anonymized from the contributing Hazeltree community of hedge funds.

To view Hazeltree’s 2023 Year in Review Report, click here.

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About Hazeltree

Hazeltree provides treasury management, collateral, securities financing, and liquidity planning and execution solutions that streamline processes and data, resulting in significant improvements in workflows and data accessibility. By gaining comprehensive visibility, investment management firms can optimize their fund financial operations even further. This aggregation and optimization create opportunities for superior execution. The Hazeltree solutions are designed specifically for the hedge fund, private markets, and asset management ecosystem, enabling faster time-to-value and empowering ongoing improvement of capabilities.

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