Short sellers had a disastrous June:

Overall, U.S. short sellers are down -$44.49 billion in net of financing mark-to-market losses over the last thirty days.

The #1 source of short seller losses? AMC, by a wide margin, at $2.8 billion. AMC was also the #2 stock in the entire market in increased short exposure in June, a little behind Tesla, which has a market cap more than 25 times as large.

How can we describe this behavior by short sellers? Delusional? Suicidal? Or perhaps rational, given the incentives hedge funds are facing. Numerous funds are down heavily on bad bets against meme stocks. Once a hedge fund is well into the red, it has to make back its losses to even have a chance of earning its 20% performance fee. (That fee is collected only on gains over the capital invested.)

So, the deeper in the hole a fund gets, the more incentive it may have to make risky bets. Only a huge payoff on a volatile stock (like AMC) can get them back in the black, earning those sweet, sweet performance fees.

Unfortunately, this exposes investors who have already lost much of their capital to enormous risks. If I were an investor in a hedge fund that bet against meme stocks, which fortunately I am not, I’d pull my money out ASAP before they lose it all. It’s hard to make money shorting anything in such a hot market, but shorting one of the most popular stocks out there is a recipe for disaster.

The hedge funds were just lucky that June is a short month.

More on AMC:

HEDGE FUND TORCHED BY AMC

AMC + UFC = JACKPOT

AMC’S S-3 WITHDRAWAL: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Photo: “I’m scared too, but we’ll make it.” by qousqous is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

If you found this post interesting, please share it on Twitter/Reddit/etc. using the buttons at the bottom of the page. This helps more people find the blog! And please leave your comments at the bottom.

Save Money on Stuff I Use:

Fundrise

This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get your management fees waived for 90 days. With their 1% management fee, this could save you $250 on a $100,000 account. I will also get a fee waiver for 90-365 days, depending on what type of account you open.

iHerb

The only place I buy vitamins and supplements. I recently placed an order and received it in less than 48 hours with free shipping! I compared the prices and they were lower than Amazon. I also love how they test a lot of the vitamins so that you know you’re getting what the label says. This isn’t always the case with supplements.

Use this link to save 5%! I’ll also get 5% of however much you spend, at no cost to you.

Misfits Market

My wife and I have gotten organic produce shipped to our house by Misfits for over a year. It’s never once disappointed me. Every fruit and vegetable is super fresh and packed with flavor. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless little lumps at salad bars until I tried theirs! They’re peppery, colorful and crunchy! I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.