We have on our blog stated that “investing is hard” and “investment blogging is hard.”  And now you can add “shorting is hard” to that list.  On a day when the stock market is down some notable shorts are up on the day.  Joe Weisenthal notes the irony of this observation.  The huge gap up in Green Mountain Coffee Roaster is likely the catalyst for shorts to cover their positions in stocks previously mentioned on this screencast like Netflix and OpenTable.  That does not mean that these stocks won’t eventually go down, but above all these type of momentum stocks need at minimum a catalyst to get them going.  One thing to note in all of these stocks is the prevalence of gaps.  This indicates that there are some imbalances that get resolved through big moves up (or down).  In today’s screencast the market once again does enough to fool the most number of people.

Items mentioned in the above screencast:

Netflix is up.  (Eddy Elfenbein)

The shorts are taking it on the chin today.  (Money Game)

Even when the odds are in your favor sometimes a stock moves against you.  (Clusterstock)

Daily price chart of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR).  (Finviz)

Daily price chart of Netflix (NFLX).  (Finviz)

Daily price chart of OpenTable (OPEN).  (Finviz)