Jefferies says these 20 heavily shorted and lightly traded stocks could see big jumps in the event of a GameStop-like squeeze
that hedge funds had bet against and the stratospheric price rises triggered multi-billion dollar losses for a number of big investment houses.
Shares in video-gaming retailer GameStop saw retail investors push the company's share price up as much as a 1000% at one point earlier this week, as casual traders on Reddit forums like r/wallstreetbets forced those hedge funds that had previously sold - or shorted - the stock to buy it back, no matter what the price, or at what loss.
"In football, targeting gets you ejected, while in today's market, some cheer you on," strategists at Jefferies said in a note."Picking on the shorts is nothing new."