Reply #1: Top ten short plays for January...

[Joanne98]

One of the heavily shorted tech stocks is EarthLink (ELNK), the Internet service provider, with a short ratio of 19, which means that it would take approximately 19 days for the short-sellers to cover their positions. The company will announce its 2008 full-year results on Feb. 5. It will record a noncash impairment charge of $80 million to $90 million in its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, due to its 2006 acquisition of New Edge Networks. The stock has a very good P/E of 5.5, much better than the average P/E of 10 for the diversified telecommunications services industry. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay a dividend.

EarthLink is owned by Steel Partners, a San Francisco-based activist hedge fund managed by Warren Lichtenstein. It looks for companies trading at a discount to intrinsic value, with the goal of being either the largest or one of the largest shareholders so as to influence the direction of the company. It also holds Rowan Companies (RDC), with a short ratio of 2.7, a P/E of 3 and a yield of 2.6%, along with stocks that don't pay a dividend: Adaptec (ADPT), with a short ratio of 5 and a P/E of 42, and Conseco (CNO), with a short ratio of 4.9 and a forward P/E of 4.

http://www.stockpickr.com/problog/1328/