The cash raised by the short sales is invested in short-term Treasuries.
For conservative investors with a pot of cash, that means short-term Treasuries now have a substantial edge.
He favors short-term Treasuries over longer-term issues, seeing "some potential for gains in the two-year sector."
One-third of savings should be in money market funds and short-term Treasuries that will suffer little if at all from a jump in interest rates.
Even a late-day recovery in technology shares was not enough to take the allure off short-term Treasuries.
Indeed, only when compared with short-term Treasury bills do stocks look cheap.
The slumping stock market also created strong demand for short-term Treasuries.
At this stage, people are interested in short-term Treasuries as a way of preserving capital.
Yields on short-term Treasuries have plummeted in recent days and fell to new lows yesterday.
Rates on intermediate to short-term Treasury notes and bills also fell, in some cases sharply.