If you are wondering why all of a sudden there has been a big move for markets today, consider that stocks with the highest short interest are leading the charge.

We screened for stocks with the highest short interest ratio (min 5) and then looked at their average performance over the past day, week and month.

Clearly that list of stocks had been under-performing and as short-sellers pressed the positions recently, any good news helped to fuel a rally/cover.

Notice the out-performance for the average percent change for   high short interest stocks today – as compared to the S&P 500 index.

In total there are 122 stocks that met the screening criteria.

So, is this simply or short-squeeze or something more?