We study the cross-section of stock returns with observed short interest and long positions of hedge funds. During the period 1997-2014, 30% of highly shorted stocks also have the highest level of hedge fund holdings. Stocks with both high short interest and high hedge fund holdings do not earn...

We assess the importance of well-known market anomalies for shorting strategies and how it changes over the 1988-2014 period. We find that anomalies contribute to both relative short interest (RSI) and RSI's negative information content about future earnings surprises and analyst actions....

We show that short interest predicts future bad news, negative earnings surprises, and downward revisions in analyst earnings forecasts. Moreover, short interest is a better predictor of changes in firm fundamentals for stocks that are harder to short and short sellers appear to have information...