Short sellers have made billions from selling tech in the US, GameStop inflicts losses: Ortex

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors are estimated to have made billions of dollars off their bearish bets on Tesla and big tech stocks in the recent spontaneous sell-off sparked by rising U.S. Treasury yields, data from the financial analysis firm Ortex.

Tesla was the biggest victory for short sellers, giving them an estimated profit of $ 4.2 billion so far in 2021, followed by more than $ 1 billion each on Zoom Video and Apple, according to Ortex.

They were, however, burned by betting against video game maker Gamestop. The company, which was at the heart of the so-called “stonk” retail mania, has jumped 400% in the past two weeks as amateur investors have returned.

GameStop’s ecommerce strategy plans have been seen as driving this week’s renewed gains in January ‘meme’ stocks, alongside speculation that small investors will use their upcoming stimulus checks to trade.

In other major bets, investors gained around $ 1 billion in shorting QQQ, an ETF that tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100. The highly technological benchmark hit correction territory on Monday, slipping further of 10% compared to the records.