I run many screens and try to find good shorts. This screen was run in the middle of August with the following parameters:
Price 2 Sales > 5 = company most likely has been buying stocks.
PE > 50 = company is too expensive for institutions. Although they are buying PE of over 100.
Market cap is over 10 billion = harder to game the price
debt/cash is > 5 = company cannot do too much buying anymore.
cash/daily volume (in dollars) < 1 = to avoid short squeeze.
This screen returned few stocks and most of them were REITs. AVB, AWK, BSX, CCI, MAA, O, SBAC and VTR. I am going to start by buying December and January puts on O and CCI.
As of mid August I have January $60 put on “O”. Ironically, just today the “unusual activities” gurus were drumming up CCI.