We show that short interest is arguably the strongest known predictor of aggregate stock returns. It outperforms a host of popular return predictors both in and out of sample, with annual r-squared statistics of 12.89% and 13.24%, respectively. In addition, short interest can generate utility...

Stock market predictability is of considerable interest in both academic research and investment practice. Ross (2005) provides a simple and elegant upper bound on the predictive regression R-squared that R^2 = (1 R_f)^2 Var(m) for a given asset pricing model with kernel m, where R_f is the...