Is Shorting A Dying Art?

RBI Capital Management’s fourth quarter and full-year 2017 letter to investors contained the surprising revelation that according to prime brokers, there are less than ten short-only funds active in the market today. When I joined Botti Brown in 2000″ Skip Tague, the Managing Member of RBI writes, “the average equity hedge fund was 20% net long. When we started RBI, the average equity hedge fund was 50% net long. Now, the average equity hedge fund is 70% net long.” Today, he concludes, RBI is one of the last of the dying breeds of short-focused funds. Short interest is generally declining…