Short Sellers Lighten Up On Online Brokers (ETFC, AMTD, SCHW)

We noticed how short sellers had increased their bets against banks and financials, even if this was right at the time that the big short squeeze came via a huge market rally.  But what is interesting is that the short sellers had actually been taking their bets down slightly in the online and discount brokerage firms.

Company Stock (Ticker)……………………… March 13… Change
E*TRADE Financial Corp. (ETFC)…………. 72,711,601  (-1.42%)
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD)….. 11,509,080  (-1.43%)
The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) 33,356,727  (-3.09%)

What is interesting about the online and discount brokerage firms is that these have not risen as much as many of the leveraged banks and brokerage firms in this last rally.

JON C. OGG
March 25, 2009