The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price has continued to hit the brakes in May.
While the travel market is in recovery mode, the company's shares have taken a 12.5% dive since the beginning of the month.
At the time of writing, Flight Centre shares are down 1.49% to $19.81 for the day.
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Flight Centre remains in top spot for open ASX short positions
The negative investor sentiment on the Flight Centre share price can be attributed to the slow recovery of the travel market.
This has ultimately attracted a large number of short sellers to the company's registry.
Short selling is a common trading strategy that aims to profit from the fall in the price of a security. The goal is for an investor to borrow shares and sell them, then buy the shares back at a lower price for a profit.
Last week, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) released its short position report revealing the level of short interest within companies.
It found Flight Centre remained in the top spot on the ASX with 17.07% of its shares being heavily shorted by investors.
In comparison, the government body recorded a short interest of 10.19% in Flight Centre shares last year on 19 May.
Given the large increase in short positions being taken up, it appears investors believe the company's performance could be underwhelming.
Flight Centre is forecasting a full-year underlying EBITDA loss of around $195 million to $225 million for FY22.
About the Flight Centre share price
Despite treading lower in recent times, the Flight Centre share price is up by 30% over the past 12 months.
It's worth noting that Flight Centre shares hit a multi-year high of $25.28 in October 2021 before crashing back down. This is a stark increase to when the company's shares were trading at the $15 mark in January 2022.
Based on valuation grounds, Flight Centre presides a market capitalisation of about $3.95 billion.
