Top 5 Stocks Sought by Shorts This Week

Intrepid Potash, the hot new fertilizer IPO, is among the stocks most sought by short sellers this week, says John Tabacco of Locatestock.com.

Intrepid came to market as agriculture stocks raced higher. It was priced at $32 and hit a high $53.50. It is trading lower today, with the rest of the group.

Tabacco says financial stocks continue to dominate the list, and Lehman was the most popular stock sought by shorts for the 27th day.

The top five stocks sought by shorts from Locatestock.com this week are:

Lehman Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc LEH

MBIA MBIA Inc MBI

Ambac AMBAC Financial Group Inc ABK

Intrepid Potash Intrepid Potash Inc IPI

DryShips DryShips Inc DRYS

Tabacco said another stock that short sellers have been requesting this week is Potash Potash Corp of Saskatchewan IncPOT, which released earnings today and raised its forecast for the year. The stock is selling off in a broader selloff of commodities and commodities-related stocks, but it's been on a tear, moving above $200 late last week.

He said Potash appears to be sought as a short-term momentum play by shorts. "The fertilizer fundamentals are a long term trend and it looks like there's no end in sight for it going up," he said.

"It's not like a sustainable short. They see an opportunity that's a short-term thing," he said

Tabacco said in terms of volume, his firm is seeing a 20 percent decline this month in stocks being sought by shorts, versus the volume in February and March. The average daily volume in April has been 265 million shares a day, compared to 325 million in February and about the same in March. That would indicate there is less shorting going on.

"I'm not sure if the short sellers are taking a spring break, but there's been a decline in volume," Tabacco said.