According to The Economist, shorting China is "in vogue," and all the cool investors are doing it.

The short story
Once upon a time, China's double-digit growth could do no wrong. The country's GDP would grow indefinitely, take over the world, and any criticism to the contrary was ignored, or flat-out mocked. How could China fail?

Well, those days are over. The government is reining in growth and reducing spending to bring the country to a sustained slowdown. But economists and analysts are skeptical it will go smoothly. Any investors who hold out hope China will avoid a hard landing are today's contrarian thinkers.

Hard landing
"The view that China is heading for a sharp slowdown has now caught on. Few go so far as to predict an Emirate-style crash, but talk of a 'hard landing' is rife. Concerns abound that a sharp Western slowdown could cripple demand for Chinese exports, that shadow lending and local-government debt are out of control and that property prices are bound for a correction. Fraud allegations against several Chinese firms have made investors jittery, too."

The Economist goes on to quote Societe Generale, which recently released a report saying China is the "world's most crowded short."

Profitable pessimism
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index has dipped by over 29% so far this year, putting some good money into the pockets of short-sellers. 

China's derailed growth is expected to hit several industries, but none more so than construction. "Anhui Conch Cement, China's largest cement manufacturer, is the most commonly shorted Chinese company listed in Hong Kong. Commodities such as copper have also been battered recently, as have financial stocks."

Talks exist of banning shorts in Hong Kong, a regulation rarely adopted and only so in times of dire circumstances. Most recently in August, Europe announced that short-selling of stocks would be temporarily banned in several countries (Italy, France, Spain, Belgium) in an effort to stop the tailspin in the markets.

Contrarian ideas
Given the extreme pessimism surrounding Chinese names, we wanted to find a few examples of this trend.

Below we list U.S.-listed Chinese companies that have seen an increase in shares shorted over the last month (i.e., short-sellers are betting on price declines).

In addition, institutional investors have been dumping these stocks during the current quarter.

If you're a contrarian, this extreme pessimism should raise a flag. Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.

List sorted alphabetically. (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

List compiled by Eben Esterhuizen, CFA:

1. China Information Technology (Nasdaq: CNIT): Provides integrated solutions for the geographic information systems (GIS), digital public security technology (DPST), and the digital hospital information systems markets in the People's Republic of China. Net institutional sales in the current quarter at -4.8M shares, which represents about 25.71% of the company's float of 18.67M shares. Shares shorted have increased from 1.26M to 1.74M over the last month, an increase which represents about 2.57% of the company's float of 18.67M shares.

2. E-Commerce China Dangdang (Nasdaq: DANG): Operates as a business-to-consumer e-commerce company in the People's Republic of China. Net institutional sales in the current quarter at -2.2M shares, which represents about 6.85% of the company's float of 32.13M shares. Shares shorted have increased from 8.71M to 9.37M over the last month, an increase which represents about 2.05% of the company's float of 32.13M shares.

3. Hanwha SolarOne (Nasdaq: HSOL): Provides various energy solutions including silicon ingots, wafers, monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar cells, and solar modules. Net institutional sales in the current quarter at -3.7M shares, which represents about 16.65% of the company's float of 22.22M shares. Shares shorted have increased from 2.33M to 2.63M over the last month, an increase which represents about 1.35% of the company's float of 22.22M shares.

4. LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK): Engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of photovoltaic (PV) products; and development of power plant projects. Net institutional sales in the current quarter at -5.3M shares, which represents about 7.78% of the company's float of 68.09M shares. Shares shorted have increased from 27.62M to 31.68M over the last month, an increase which represents about 5.96% of the company's float of 68.09M shares

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.


Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Rebecca Lipman do not own any of the shares mentioned above. Institutional data sourced from Fidelity, Short data from Yahoo! Finance.