How MiniMed ended up with 99% of its float sold short
An anomaly appeared on the Nasdaq stock exchange yesterday when, per an estimate by data provider Ortex, 99% of the shares in public medical tech company MiniMed Group Inc.’s float were sold-short. In contrast to buyers, short-sellers borrow stock to sell first, hoping to repay shares at a lower price to close their loan with profit. Up from 47.6% on September 15 and 77% a week earlier, MiniMed’s short interest skyrocketed to an almost unbelievable high yesterday as short-sellers borrowed and sold almost the entire float, i.e. every share of the company available for public trading on Nasdaq’s exchange. Ortex specializes in live short interest estimates for publicly traded companies. It updates data daily from securities-lending data, often days ahead of official, twice-monthly exchange reports. According to its data from securities lenders, shares of Minimed’s common stock on loan nearly equaled the company’s full float yesterday, with available stoc...