Investors lose nearly $1 billion in Game Stop and AMC Entertainment mazech.com

Investors are estimated to have lost $930 million on their short positions in meme stocks GameStop and AMC Entertainment over the last five trading days, new data from Ortex shows.

AMC shorts lost $210 million and GameStop shorts lost $227 million on Monday alone, the data shows.

ORTEX co-founder Peter Hillerberg told Insider in an email that Short positions in the stocks remains high, which causes “large losses” for anyone with a short position. AMC short interest is at 18.3% of free float and GameStop short interest is at 21.8%, according to the financial analytics company, ORTEX.

“The sharp price increase can cause short position holders to try to close their positions by buying back the shares, causing additional demand which in turn can cause the share price to go up further,” Hillerberg said.

“This is what the ‘Reddit army’ is hoping for,” he said.

Shares in GameStop, which soared earlier this year, have risen by a third in the last one week, while shares in cinema operator AMC are up 39%.

Ortex said short interest in AMC is currently estimated to be 18.3% of freefloat and in GME it is estimated at 21.8% of freefloat.