Short sellers are a unique bunch. Mostly unloved by Wall Street investors, corporate executives, and government regulators alike, they spend their time sniffing out corporate malfeasance in the hopes of profiting from declining stock prices when the shenanigans are ultimately confirmed. Classic indicators of fraud involve accounting or governance red flags – Jim Chanos famously teaches an entire class at Yale on such red flags called A History of Financial Market Fraud: A Forensic Approach – but many short sellers also supplement with a few rather humorous rules of thumb.

Take the infamous “wig indicator” made popular on FinTwit by short seller Marc Cohodes. Under his theory, an executive willing to obfuscate their appearance through the use of a toupee might be willing to rug investors as well. Our personal favorite is the “hardhat indicator,” which states that any company whose CEO shows up on CNBC wearing safety gear over their business attire is likely an excellent short candidate.