Mr. Zephirin: My focus is oilfield service and equipment and the offshore drillers.
TWST: Given what's gone on in oil prices, how has the space reacted?
Mr. Zephirin: The space has fallen off with the price of oil. Since oil hit a
high on June 11, 2009, the oil price is down by 12%. Year to date, I think the
oil price is up by at least 43% while our group is up by 51% and is down from
its earlier peak this year, by approximately 12%. So overall the market will
attribute the falling off of the group to the falling price of commodities, but
I think if you look at the short interest, the short interest has increased from
last month by approximately 20.5% on total short interest for our coverage
universe. That 20.5% rise of short interest contributes heavily to the decline
of our universe, in our opinion.
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