With the Standard & Poor's 500 Index soaring nearly 30 percent so far in 2013, this hasn't been a very good year to short stocks. And hedge funds dedicated to that strategy are suffering losses.

Short-sellers borrow shares or other securities and sell them, hoping the price will fall. If the strategy works, the short-seller then buys back the securities at the lower price and pockets the difference.

Such funds lost almost 15 percent during the first 10 months of the year, according to hedge-fund research firm HFR, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Editor’s Note: 5 Reasons Stocks Will Collapse . . .

Fortunately for investors, there are only 25 hedge funds in the short-selling category, according to HFR. Unfortunately for investors, there are almost 3,700 hedge funds that go both long and short stocks.

"Clearly, there's been a tremendous amount of pain on the short side, and people are giving up on shorting individual stocks," Alan Fournier, who runs Pennant Capital Management, told The Journal.

His hedge fund manages $6.5 billion, goes both long and shorts stocks, and has gained more than 10 percent this year, according to investors, The Journal reports.

"Funds that are dedicated to short selling are closing, and others are starting long-only funds," Fournier said.

Doug Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management, has shorted the market. He conceded to The Journal that his strategy has been a "hedge against profits."

However, some "shorts" see stocks as a bubble and view current price levels as a great opportunity for betting against further gains.

"This is it. It's the bottom of the ninth and we're about to hit a home run," John Fichthorn, co-founder of Dialectic Capital Management, told CNBC. "I believe this is the best opportunity I will see in my life as a short seller."

Editor’s Note: 5 Reasons Stocks Will Collapse . . .

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