What?! Not making money from Rio Tinto? Well someone is as the stock saw the biggest increase in short interest, according to the latest ASIC data. The...

What?! Not making money from Rio Tinto? Well someone is as the stock saw the biggest increase in short interest, according to the latest ASIC data. The percentage of shorts in Australia's largest iron ore miner nearly doubled in the week to Nov 6 to 1.5%. Short sellers were correctly tipping more pain for the sector with BC Iron experiencing the second largest percentage increase in shorts (see table). ASIC data is always a week old, and I am expecting more engineering contractors to make the dubious top 20 shorting list this time next week, thanks to the shocking reminders from UGL and WDS that trading conditions are still precarious. To that point, WDS slumped 31% to a record low of 20 cents today while UGL is at a decade low. It is also interesting to see a number of expensive defensives attracting the short sellers. Domino's, Woolies, Virtus Health are just a few examples, although shorters have been locking in profits for Virtus with short interest halving from 5 Nov to 6 Nov.