Stocks to short?

A little brainstorming about putting money where the mouth is.

Media companies:

NYT: $32. Short interest: 4.4%

GCI: $75. Short interest: 2%.

TRB: $36. Short interest: 1.6%

KRI: $63. Short interest: 6.1%

Amazed to see that only the NYT is significantly off its highs. Hmm. More context. Always worth remembering that markets can take 2 or 3 years to correct, and that bears lose lots in squeezes in the mean-time. Soros got killed waiting for the Japanese stock market to plummet in the late 80s. I got killed shorting Yahoo in the summer of 1998. Calling from Geneva, my guru Humphrey today reminded me (quoting Lance Armstrong): “the pain is temporary, but giving up is forever.” Or, paraphrasing Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, “just don’t get out.” Anyway, another wall to consider slamming your head against…

Housing stocks:

KBH: $75. SI: 7.9%

TOA: $24. SI: 1.8%

LEN: $62. SI: 6.3%

DHI: $37. SI: 2.9%

PHM: $84. SI: 5.8%

(For reference, GOOG’s SI is 3.5%, F is 4.3%, MRK is .8%.)

Finally, if you are still reading this far, you are indisputably a close friend or blood relation, so might enjoy blast from the archive of the Pressflex LLC proto-blog about a company set up to compete with our first, and still growing, venture that rents websites to newspapers and magazines in Europe. Punchline: the Swedish competitor’s URL is now for sale for $670.