Whenever you're a self-proclaimed expert on too many topics, you run the risk of missing one. That may have happened today during Cramer's "Stop Trading" segment on CNBC.
He said that the short-sellers have still not covered their positions in Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL). If you are a "glass half-full" guy then you'd say they just haven't covered all of them, but if you are a "glass half-empty" guy you'd say that Cramer is just dead wrong. This is one of the problems when analysts and pundits tout their picks with reckless abandon. Sometimes it turns you into a "glass half-full" guy even if the glass is still losing water.
Halliburton had 113.76 million shares short in April, and in May the short interest was all the way down to 47.3 million shares. That is still close to 3 days worth of trading volume, but the truth is that the short selling was way down. This is still a controversial stock that can probably expect a higher short interest than other oil services names. Back in April the trades from the KBR spin-off, the tender, the buyback, and the "post-moving overseas" fallout were still settling.
Here is the rest of the short interest changes for the month in the major oil and gas shares.
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Did Cramer get it wrong on Halliburton?
Posted May 22nd 2007 7:10PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Halliburton (HAL)
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