LOSSES TOP US$70B ON SHORT POSITIONS IN U.S. FIRMS: ORTEX

Wall Street investors are sitting on estimated year-to-date losses of US$70.87 billion on their bets against U.S. firms following massive surges in some of the heavily shorted shares, data from analytics firm Ortex showed Thursday. Some shares such as in video game retailer GameStop have jumped more than 1,000 per cent in the past week, driven primarily by retail investors trading on online apps and sharing tips on social media. Such gains have forced short-sellers to buy back stock to cover potential losses in what is dubbed a short-squeeze. Moves were exacerbated by more retail investors piling into the stock. Ortex data showed that as of Wednesday, there were loss-making short positions on more than 5,000 U.S. firms. Shorting GameStop may have cost US$1.03 billion year-to-date, Ortex estimates.