Interesting. So would you jump on and short a portfolio of these or take the other side looking for a short squeeze?
neither. it is list created at one moment in time. there is no reason to believe that it has predictive value
GS is not going to walk the crowd into some easy trades. You can bet there is deception at work - they are probably net long on these stocks and trying to draw in the crowd to cause a short squeeze.
All the GS guys have done is ranked the equity world based on short interest * market cap. That information is public (every Bbg "des" screen has short interest) and has very little predictive value. The Business Insider is picking it up this time around as a "juicy story". Blah.
GOLDMAN IS SPOT ON IBM - classic example of a big dumb company. Let's build a technology that no one wants (Watson) and then try to find a way to sell it. IBM is backwards - you always find out what your customer wants and then sell it to them. CFO recently said that they weren't specially focusing on their revenue number (huh!? - if you aren't driving sales, what the hell are you doing!!) PG - "premier marketing company" that is utterly clueless as to how to market on the internet (direct response). Their response is to cut digital. Key metric in digital is impressions, ie, how fast can you light money on fire. Slow death as people purchase more and more online. Simon - malls are dying; traffic to malls are dying as people can buy online. Intuitive Surgical - same problem as IBM (ie build a product and then find a market for it) XOM / All Oil Companies - solar continues to kick your butts; soon will be able to produce energy cheaper than you. "Free market" guys like the Koch brothers will petition government to add taxes and regulations to solar and other renewables because they can't compete in the free market (for those saying that Obama gave solar incredible tax benefits, look at the hard numbers, tax breaks or no - solar will soon produce cheaper energy). Walmart - no low cost player lasts forever. Every single one gets disrupted (Sears was disrupted by Woolworths which was disrupted by Kmart which was disrupted by Walmart which was disrupted Amazon). The question is never will the low cost player be disrupted, the question is when and by whom. THEY FORGOT ONE COMPANY - Staples - this might be the worst run company in the US. Crappy customer service, high prices, poor leadership