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Most shorted stocks: short interest & days to cover
Research note · Updated Oct 12, 2026 · FINRA data as of Sep 30, 2026
Short interest measures how heavily investors are betting against a stock. When short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding climbs above 20–30%, it signals significant market skepticism — but also the potential for a short squeeze if sentiment shifts. Below are the 20 most shorted U.S. stocks by FINRA data as of the Sep 30, 2026 settlement date.
Top 20 most shorted stocks
Ranked by short interest as a percentage of total shares outstanding. Data: FINRA, settlement date Sep 30, 2026, via Equibles.
| Rank | Ticker | Company | Short % of Shares Out | Days to Cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOLF | Wolfspeed, Inc. | 50.7% | 11.4 |
| 2 | ONDS | Ondas Holdings Inc. | 40.1% | 3.4 |
| 3 | HTZ | Hertz Global Holdings | 39.0% | 10.6 |
| 4 | EOSE | Eos Energy Enterprises | 37.0% | 4.7 |
| 5 | SOUN | SoundHound AI, Inc. | 35.8% | 9.7 |
| 6 | SHOE | Shoe Station Group Inc. | 34.7% | 7.2 |
| 7 | SERV | Serve Robotics Inc. | 34.4% | 9.5 |
| 8 | LENZ | LENZ Therapeutics, Inc. | 33.6% | 13.8 |
| 9 | BYND | Beyond Meat, Inc. | 33.1% | 3.5 |
| 10 | JACK | Jack In The Box Inc. | 33.1% | 12.1 |
| 11 | FRNM | Freenome Holdings, Inc. | 33.0% | 3.3 |
| 12 | CCCC | C4 Therapeutics, Inc. | 32.8% | 17.7 |
| 13 | TRIP | TripAdvisor, Inc. | 32.6% | 8.7 |
| 14 | CAPR | Capricor Therapeutics | 32.4% | 4.5 |
| 15 | NTLA | Intellia Therapeutics | 32.2% | 9.5 |
| 16 | NNE | Nano Nuclear Energy Inc. | 31.2% | 8.0 |
| 17 | FCEL | FuelCell Energy Inc. | 30.6% | 4.6 |
| 18 | OCGN | Ocugen, Inc. | 30.1% | 13.7 |
| 19 | LEU | Centrus Energy Corp. | 29.8% | 8.1 |
| 20 | QUBT | Quantum Computing Inc. | 29.8% | 8.6 |
Short interest shown as % of shares outstanding (not float). Days to cover = short interest ÷ average daily volume. Source: Equibles / FINRA. Updated twice monthly with each FINRA settlement. Not investment advice.
What to watch: squeeze candidates
Two metrics together identify the highest short-squeeze risk: a high short % of float and a high days-to-cover number. That combination means many shares are shorted and it would take a long time for shorts to exit — a rising price can cascade quickly.
From this list, the names with both high short interest and high days to cover include:
- LENZ (33.6% short, 13.8 days to cover) — LENZ Therapeutics, a clinical-stage ophthalmology company. High short interest likely tied to binary clinical outcome risk.
- CCCC (32.8%, 17.7 days) — C4 Therapeutics, a targeted protein degradation biotech. 17.7 days to cover is the highest on this list.
- JACK (33.1%, 12.1 days) — Jack in the Box, under pressure from fast-food industry headwinds and franchise restructuring.
- WOLF (50.7%, 11.4 days) — Wolfspeed, a silicon carbide semiconductor maker struggling with overcapacity and demand shortfalls in EV and industrial markets.
- HTZ (39.0%, 10.6 days) — Hertz, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2021 and has faced ongoing EV fleet write-down and profitability issues.
High short interest is not a buy signal by itself — it often reflects real fundamental problems. But it is a dynamic worth watching, especially when a catalyst (earnings beat, acquisition, FDA approval) hits a heavily shorted name.
Short interest glossary
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Short interest | The total number of shares that have been sold short and not yet covered or closed out. |
| % of shares outstanding | Short interest divided by total shares outstanding. A higher percentage means a larger fraction of the company is being bet against. Can exceed 100% because shares can be borrowed and reshorted. |
| Days to cover | Short interest divided by average daily trading volume. Tells you how many days it would take all short sellers to buy back their positions at normal volume. Higher = harder to exit. |
| Short squeeze | When a heavily shorted stock rises sharply, forcing short sellers to buy shares to close their positions, which drives the price even higher. High days-to-cover names are most vulnerable. |
| FINRA settlement date | FINRA collects short interest data twice monthly (around the 15th and last business day). The figures here are from the Sep 30, 2026 settlement. |
How FINRA reports short interest
FINRA collects short interest data from broker-dealers twice a month, with settlement dates around the 15th and the last business day of each month. Data is reported within a few days of each settlement. The figures here are from the Sep 30, 2026 settlement, published in early October 2026.
Note: FINRA short interest data covers U.S.-listed stocks and captures all reported short positions at the settlement date. It does not identify individual short sellers — only aggregate position sizes by ticker. For institutional-level short positioning (who is short and by how much), that data comes from prime brokers and is not publicly available for free.
Not investment advice. Data from FINRA via Equibles, FINRA settlement date Sep 30, 2026. Short interest figures change with each FINRA settlement — verify current data before making any decision. Updated Oct 12, 2026.