The Globe and Mail attempts to find gold companies that will hold their own in the face of further declines in the metal's price in its Tuesday, April 30, edition. The Globe's Ian McGugan writes in the Number Cruncher column that even though gold company shares are down and looking attractive, the risks are considerable. Some miners would face financial distress if the metal's price were to decline from current levels. One indicator of which companies are most vulnerable is the degree to which short sellers are targeting a company's shares, hoping to profit from further declines. Mr. McGugan lists the gold miners with market capitalizations in excess of $500-million (U.S.) that have the smallest short positions against them as a percentage of their overall float, or number of shares available for trading. A relatively small percentage indicates short sellers do not see any obvious weakness ahead for these miners' share prices, however, it is not a foolproof indicator of quality. Investors should look at other factors, too. Stocks short sellers shun are Alamos Gold, OceanaGold, Pan American Silver, Nevsun Resources, Goldcorp and China Gold International Resources.