How hedge funds failed to feast on Gartmore's slide

Short selling was, perhaps surprisingly, most notable by its absence as shares in hedge fund manager Gartmore slid 31% mid-week.

News the company had suspended star manager Guillaume Rambourg due to an internal investigation over “internal procedures regarding trades” precipitated the fall. Gartmore’s insistence this was unconnected to the broader FSA investigation into alleged insider trading, and markets calming overnight, helped the shares rebound by 7% by mid-morning Thursday. Short sale analysts Dataexplorers calculated only 0.2% of Gartmore’s stock was being borrowed by short sellers such as hedge funds on Tuesday evening – enough to reap them about £700,000 of paper profits the next day. The p...