The bearish stock market finally cleared up to reveal a bright moon: Traders made nearly $160 billion in profits within 6 days.

Against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the US stock market due to the escalation of the trade war, short sellers have ushered in the largest profit feast since 2022. Data shows that within just six trading days, investors betting on a drop in stock prices have realized approximately $159 billion in profits. According to data from S3 Partners LLC, following President Trump's announcement of implementing high tariffs globally, the market suffered a heavy blow, with the ETF tracking the S&P 500 index (SPY.US) becoming the most profitable target for short sellers. Just this month, shorting SPY has brought in more than $6.1 billion in profits for the shorts. S3's Predictive Analytics Director, Ihor Dusaniwsky, stated, "In this market adjustment, short selling has become the most profitable operation. 81% of short trades are profitable, and 97% of short selling funds are in profit." In addition to SPY, Apple Inc. (AAPL.US), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US), and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) are also key targets for the shorts to "harvest profits." The ETF tracking the Nasdaq 100 index, Invesco QQQ Trust Series ETF (QQQ.US), has also entered the top five most profitable short selling trade names this month. The profits currently brought in by these top five short selling targets for investors all exceed $2 billion, and the previously considered "seven tech giants" driving the bull market, such as Meta (META.US), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US), and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US), have also made it into the top fifteen list of profitable shorts. Apart from NVIDIA Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US), Broadcom Inc. (AVGO.US), and Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US) have also become "battlefields" for short sellers betting on their stock prices to decline. Despite having made significant profits, the enthusiasm of short sellers has not diminished. S3 data shows that there was an addition of $46 billion in new short positions in April, which means that if the market suddenly rebounds, these contrarian bets may be forced to liquidate positions, further intensifying the momentum of the market's rise. Currently, the total short positions in the market have decreased by approximately $114 billion, partly due to the decrease in market capitalization resulting from falling stock prices. However, once the market stops falling and starts to rise, shorts will need to cover their positions by buying back stocks to lock in profits, which could potentially create a combined force with momentum traders and FOMO investors, leading to significant volatility in the rebound of the market. Dusaniwsky pointed out, "When the market hits bottom and starts to recover, short sellers will rush to cover their positions, helping to boost the market's upward movement, just as they helped push the market down before."