Goldman Sachs: Biggest ‘short squeeze’ in 25 years caused hedge funds to ‘de-gross’ at fastest rate since 2009

Goldman Sachs: Biggest ‘short squeeze’ in 25 years caused hedge funds to ‘de-gross’ at fastest rate since 2009

The US stock market is witnessing the biggest "short squeeze" in 25 years, forcing hedge funds to withdraw from their positions on stocks at the fastest rate since 2009, according to Goldman Sachs.

Last month saw GameStop shares rise more than 1,700%, "squeezing" hedge funds and others who had "shorted" the stock, costing them billions of dollars. A short position is a bet that a share price will fall.

The surge in GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks was driven by users of the Reddit forum Wall Street Bets, who forced up the price in an effort to make themselves money but also to hammer hedge funds such as Melvin Capital.

Read More: A chief investment strategist breaks down how the GameStop saga could upend long-standing practices on Wall Street “” and shares her 4-part advice for navigating the frenzied trading environment

Goldman Sachs analysts this weekend shed some light on the situation in a note. "The past 25 years have witnessed a number of sharp short squeezes in the US equity market, but none as extreme as has occurred recently," they said.

The equity analysts said a basket of the most-shorted US stocks has rallied 98% in the last three months. Estimates by data provider