market folly

Just yesterday, we posted up a ton of hedge fund short positions in the UK due to new regulations.  Continuing our coverage of EU markets, today we highlight hedge fund short positions in German markets.

More Short Selling Disclosures in EU Countries

What's interesting here is that with the new regulations in EU countries, there are theoretically going to be more filings on shorts than longs.  Public disclosure thresholds now start at -0.5% for shorts while public long disclosure is only required when an investor takes a stake greater than 3% of the company.

Some may argue that this might not be the case due to the fact that more investors go long than short, and typically long positions are sized much larger than short positions due to risk management.  We'll have to wait and see, but so far there's been an onslaught of short filings.


Hedge Fund Short Positions in Germany Revealed

Below is a breakdown of the short positions hedge funds have disclosed as of November 1st/2nd.  The percentage represents how much of the company's stock the fund is short:


Maverick Capital: Short -7.82% Aixtron SE, -0.47% Axel Springer Aktiengesellschaft

Passport Capital: Short -0.61% Nordex SE

Pennant Capital: Short -2.27% Aixtron SE, -0.68% Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiengesellschaft, -0.95% Sky Deutschland, -0.90% TUI AG

Tiger Global: Short -1.99% Asian Bamboo AG, -0.70% SolarWorld Aktiengesellschaft, -0.63% Global PVQ SE

Tiger Management: Short -1.08% Powerland AG

Citadel Advisors:  Short -4.13% Aixtron, -1.82% SolarWorld Aktiengesellschaft, -1.60% Wacker Chemie AG

D.E. Shaw: Short - 0.97% Dragerwerk AG & Co, -.60% Leoni AG


As you can see, numerous funds are short Aixtron, a provider of deposition equipment to the semi-conductor sector.  Maverick's bet against the company is by far the largest we've seen thus far.  We'll continue to track short positions in the German market and will update when appropriate.

For more EU disclosures, head to yesterday's post on hedge fund short positions in the UK.