August was a good month for short-sellers who were betting against European stocks. European names with the largest short interest and the highest fees to borrow under-performed the overall market in last month, according to a Markit report. Novus Research also pointed out the outperformance of European shorts in their monthly Short Observer report.
A weighted basket of European shorts generated a .74% return compared to a loss of 2% for a short position in the S&P Europe 350.
"This implies that a passive strategy of shorting each disclosed stock in Europe and buying the index would generate over 5% Alpha year-to-date," Novus explained in the report.



