Hedge fund Qube discloses $105 million short position in Trump Media

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Carolina Mandl

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies disclosed a roughly $105 million short position in Trump Media & Technology Group on Monday, according to a filing with Germany’s federal Gazette Bundesanzeiger.

Qube’s disclosed position in Trump Media, which was first reported by research firm Breakout Point, equates to 2.53% of the total free float of Trump Media, which is 53% owned by President Donald Trump and is the parent company of the Truth Social platform.

Trump Media did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the short position. Qube declined to comment, but said in an e-mail that its positions are driven by a quantitative model and “do not reflect a specific view on the fundamental of the company.”

Investors who take a short position in a company’s stock are betting that the share price will decline. In a short sale, investors borrow shares and then sell them, betting that the share price will fall so that the shares can be bought back at a lower price to repay the loan, allowing the investor to pocket the difference.

Breakout Point said the Qube filing marked the first regulatory short disclosure in Trump Media by any entity, and said that it ranks as Qube’s biggest short position in percentage terms after B Riley Financial.

A popular stock among retail investors, shares in Trump Media are down 44% this year after roughly doubling in value last year. The short interest in the company, which has a market value of $4.2 billion, is at 4.9%, according to LSEG.

Earlier this month, Trump Media’s shares plunged after the company filed papers that would allow the president’s trust to sell a large number of shares.

Trump Media shares on Monday were last up 1.6%.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Joe Bavier and Leslie Adler)