Couple Of Short Interest ETFs (KRE, XRT)

SPDR KBW Regional Banking ETF KRE has a high short interest, as does SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT. ETFs with high short interests are generally in sectors or names that people do not believe will see any meaningful appreciation anytime soon. The retail sector is one such sector. XRT contains names like Amazon AMZN, AutoZone AZO, and priceline.com PCLN. A quick check shows that XRT has a short to cover ratio of 5.3. This means it will take 5.3 days worth of average volume for the bears to cover their shorts. The XRT seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index. SPDR KBW Regional Banking ETF KRE also has a high short interest, at an astounding 16.2. It appears that bears believe the regional banking sector will never recover. This is a tremendous amount of volume, and if any kind of positive news comes out of this sector, it could spur a massive flood of short covering. Some names in this ETF are First Financial Bancorp. FFBC, Signature Bank SBNY and Bank of Hawaii Corporation BOH. The investment seeks to replicate the total return performance, before expenses, of the KBW Regional Banking index.