Shorts have Paramount Resources in their crosshairs based on Thursday's IIROC short report. The stock has seen its short position jump by 987,869 shares and now totals 7,352,444 shares representing 10.3% of the stock's float. The short data is as of March 15th as reported by market participants to IIROC.
Top 10 Canadian Stocks Shorted as of March 15, 2019*| Stock | Shares Short | % Float | Change | Insiders | ||
| 1 | HLF | High Liner Foods | 3,306,417 | 16.30% | -0.89% | Mixed |
| 2 | L | Loblaw Companies | 12,147,867 | 10.86% | -0.23% | Cloudy |
| 3 | CJT | Cargojet | 1,256,916 | 10.73% | 0.68% | Mixed |
| 4 | POU | Paramount Res. | 7,352,444 | 10.33% | 1.39% | Mostly Sunny |
| 5 | SSL | Sandstorm Gold | 17,682,915 | 10.32% | -0.01% | Cloudy |
| 6 | GWO | Great-West Lifeco | 27,126,617 | 9.77% | 0.13% | Mostly Sunny |
| 7 | ALEF | Aleafia Health | 13,821,391 | 9.73% | 3.85% | Mixed |
| 8 | ACQ | AutoCanada | 2,529,517 | 9.26% | 0.57% | Mixed |
| 9 | TMD | Titan Medical | 1,960,970 | 9.21% | 3.97% | Mixed |
| 10 | LB | Laurentian Bank | 3,837,148 | 9.13% | 1.64% | Mixed |
*Stocks trading over $1.
In the case of Paramount, shorts may be playing with fire. According to our signals, this stock has a potential short-squeeze setup as short sellers are betting against a stock with relatively high insider commitment. Another top-10 shorted stock vulnerable to a short squeeze may be Great West Life which has 9.8% of its float shorted. Perhaps shorts will have better luck against Loblaw and Sandstorm Gold which both have a combination of relatively large short selling and unexceptional insider commitment rankings.
The insiders column in the table refers to the ranking of the stock based on INK's insider commitment criteria which includes officer and director buying and holdings. For more background on INK's ranking process, see INK Canadian Insider Index INK Edge methodology.
Next week, look for the release of our new company pages which will include short positions for Canadian stocks. It will also have a few other new value-added features so check back to take a look at the new look.
This post first appeared on INKResearch.com.