The shorters time is up27 Jan 2021 12:27
“Recently, the US group GameStop has undergone erratic moves as there is a tussle between short sellers and buyers," he said. "It might be the case that funds are flowing into Pearson to shake out some of the short sellers."
In New York, GameStop shares closed up 93% at USD147.98 on Tuesday and were trading a whopping 92% higher pre-market on Wednesday. Since 2021 began, GameStop shares have rocketed nearly eight-fold in value since ending 2020 at USD18.84.
Investors betting against GameStop by borrowing shares and selling them "short" in the hope of buying them back cheap, pocketing the difference, seem to be up against day traders and users of social media sites such as Reddit boosting the company in online posts.
Shares in Blackberry and Virgin Galactic, two other New York-listed firms targeted by online traders, were up 9.4% and 11% respectively in pre-market trade. In London, in the FTSE 250, Cineworld and Petrofac - both amongst the most shorted stocks in London - were up 13% and 7.5% respectively at midday.“