Liberty arbitrage ‘backfires,’ fueling Sirius XM short squeeze, Barron’s says

An apparent short squeeze in Sirius XM (SIRI), which has the highest ratio of short interest to its publicly available float among companies in the Russell 1000 index, appears to have been driving up the stock, Barron’s said yesterday, noting that the stock had risen 25% in the past month at that point. In Thursday afternoon trading, Sirius XM shares are up $1.84, or 34%, to $7.33. The rally in Sirius XM has stung investors who have a popular spread trade that involves a long position in Liberty SiriusXM Group (LSXMK) and a short position in Sirius, said Andrew Bary in yesterday’s report from Barron’s.