Shorts Up Against Online Brokers (May 2007) (ETFC, AMTD, SCHW, NITE, OXPS, TRAD, IBKR)

Stock Tickers: ETFC, AMTD, SCHW, NITE, OXPS, TRAD, IBKR

The short interest in online brokers is often a guage as to what traders are thinking about the markets because it is one of the directly affected areas by rising or falling trading volume in the overall stock markets.  So if shares in the short interest are rising, then short sellers in these names are either building positions for an impending fall in the markets or a drop in trading volume, or they are just fighting the tape.

Stock (Ticker)                     MAY       APRIL    CHANGE
E*Trade (ETFC)             16.72M    10.96M     52%
TD Ameritrade (AMTD)  21.45M    13.96M     53%
Schwab (SCHW)            20.66M    18.2M       13.5%
Knight Trading (NITE)   10.02M    8.79M        14%
optionsXpress (OXPS)   5.05M       5.4M        -7%
Interactive Brkrs (IBKR)   415K        N/A          N/A
TradeStation (TRAD)      2.05M        2.1M       -2.6%

Jon C. Ogg
May 25, 2007

JOn Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.