What Is a Crowded Short?

A crowded short is a trade with a large number of participants on the short side, which greatly increases the risks of a short squeeze.

Understanding Crowded Short

A crowded short can occur in any asset class: stocks, bonds, commodities, or currencies. If a short squeeze develops on a crowded short, it can result in significant losses—particularly if the participants have not used a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:stop-loss order.

To help understand the psychology behind a crowded short trade, consider this examplꦕe. Visualize a large number of people who are crowded into a small room to peer with morbid fascination at a comatose dangerous creature, such as a rattlesnake or giant spider. Now, what if the rattlesnake or spider suddenly comes to life? The stampede to get out of the room is bound to result in mayhem and injury as people scramble to get out as quickly as possible. When this occurs in the market, we see a similar scramble to cover positions and, instead of injury, monetary losses are the toll that is extracted from the crow𒁃d.

Other Considerations

Crowded shorts are typically in abundance at the tail end of a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bear market. In equity markets, the start of a bull market is often marked by a massive covering of crowded short trades, leading to benchmark indices gapping up and posting significant advances, as occurred in March 2003 and again in March 2009 near the conclusion of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Great Recession.

A crowded short can also come to an abrupt end due to company-specific news, such as a takeover or profit upgrade that 𝕴causes a major short squeeze. For example, in 2015, coffee pod maker Keurig Green Mountain surged r🌠oughly 70% on news of a takeover that caused a squeeze to suddenly end a long-term crowded short trade in the stock.

Investors can identify crowded shorts by analyzing metrics such as short interest and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:short interest ratio for stocks. If these metrics show rapid increases, it may signꦯal that the short trade is getting crowded. The prospect of making some profits by following the (bearish) trend, in this case, should be weighed against the risk of incurring significant losses if the shorts get squeezed.

Crowded Shorts in the Forex Market

A loan taken in a foreign currency amounts to a short position in it. This is because the person or company typically converts the foreign currency loan into their local currency, but the eventual repayment gets made in the foreign currency. In 2015, tens of thousands of consumers in Eastern Europe faced sharply higher costs to repay mortgage loans denominated in Swiss francs after Switzerland unexpectedly eliminated the cap on the franc's exchange rate against the euro in January of that year.

These consumers had borrowed in Swiss francs because interest rates were lower than rates on loans denominated in their local currencies. Unfortunately, the view held by most market participants that Switzerland would continue to cap the Swiss franc exchange rate against the euro had made the long euro/short Swiss franc (EUR/CHF) trade an extremely crowded one.

Another example of a crowded short trade in the currency market is the massive 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:carry trade that♏ involved shorting the Japanese yen and going long on hi༺gher-yielding assets in the period from 2005 to 2008.