Top Nasdaq Short-Squeeze Plays

Updated from 8:45 a.m. EDT

On July 15, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an emergency order to enhance investor protections against "naked" short-selling in the securities of Fannie Mae(FNM Quote - Cramer on FNM - Stock Picks), Freddie Mac(FRE Quote - Cramer on FRE - Stock Picks) and primary dealers at commercial and investment banks. If the SEC continues crackdowns on selling short without borrowing the securities, this may create some interesting short-squeeze opportunities.

A short squeeze takes place when a stock's short-sellers cover their positions quickly when good news boosts the price of the stock. This short-covering often drives the stock price even higher. The metric for measuring short-squeeze plays is the short ratio, which represents the number of days it would take a stock's short-sellers to cover their position based on the stock's recent average daily volume.

With this in mind, at Stockpickr.com, we've compiled a list of the top Nasdaq short-squeeze plays for July, including Portfolio Recovery Associates(PRAA Quote - Cramer on PRAA - Stock Picks) and CoStar Group(CSGP Quote - Cramer on CSGP - Stock Picks).

For the rest of the story, and to find out which Nasdaq stocks present possible short-squeeze opportunities, please click here.

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A note from James Altucher:

Every weekend I send an email to Jim Cramer and several hedge fund managers about the most interesting portfolios posted on Stockpickr that week. Usually those portfolios not only list stocks according to a theme but also offer significant analysis as to why the stocks are cheap.

Here are some examples:

• Stocks related to drilling the Marcellus Shale

• MLPS with yields above 7%

• Microcaps trading for less than tangible book

• Stocks that do well after Hurricanes

Here's the challenge: Build a portfolio at Stockpickr.com with great analysis, and send me the link. Each great portfolio (with analysis) will get posted on TheStreet.com with your byline (as a "Stockpickr Guest Columnist") and will be included in my email I send to Jim and the other hedge fund managers on my list.