Most Shorted Stocks Right Now, Measured

"Most shorted" means two different lists depending on the yardstick, and most articles quietly pick one without telling you. This page shows both, computed from the latest exchange-reported short-interest settlement, restricted to liquid names (five million shares of average daily volume and up) so the table isn't a parade of untradeable microcaps. It refreshes as new settlements publish — the "data as of" stamp above tells you which print you're reading.

Most shorted by days to cover — the crowded exits

Days to cover divides shares short by average daily volume: how many typical days of the stock's entire tape the shorts would need to buy back. It is the squeeze-watcher's yardstick, and the fuller calibration lives in the linked guide.

SELECT ticker,
       round(days_to_cover, 1) AS days_to_cover,
       round(short_interest / 1e6, 1) AS shares_short_m,
       round(avg_daily_volume / 1e6, 1) AS avg_daily_volume_m,
       toString(settlement_date) AS settled
FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest
WHERE settlement_date = (SELECT max(settlement_date) FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest)
  AND avg_daily_volume >= 5000000
  AND days_to_cover IS NOT NULL
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
ORDER BY days_to_cover DESC
LIMIT 10

The current leader, MPT, carries 16.9 days to cover as of the 2026-06-30 settlement — 138.1 million shares short against 8.2 million shares of daily volume. For scale: the liquid market's median sits under two days, and double digits is rare air (the distribution shows exactly how rare). A reading this high says the exit is narrow; it does not say the exit will be needed — the squeeze mechanics explain what has to happen for that to matter.

Most shorted by absolute shares — a very different list

SELECT ticker,
       round(short_interest / 1e6, 1) AS shares_short_m,
       round(days_to_cover, 1) AS days_to_cover,
       round(avg_daily_volume / 1e6, 1) AS avg_daily_volume_m
FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest
WHERE settlement_date = (SELECT max(settlement_date) FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest)
  AND avg_daily_volume >= 5000000
  AND short_interest IS NOT NULL
  AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
ORDER BY short_interest DESC
LIMIT 10

Ranked by raw shares short, the list transforms: PLUG leads with 340.7 million shares — yet its days to cover is just 6, since it trades 56.5 million shares a day. The absolute-shares list is largely a list of the market's biggest, most-traded names, where enormous short positions coexist with trivial exit times: hedges, market-making inventory, and relative-value trades all show up as "short interest" without any of it being a bet against the company. This is the core reading lesson: raw short interest measures size; days to cover measures crowding. The two lists overlap far less than most people expect.

How to read these tables honestly

Three caveats travel with every row. First, the data is a snapshot: settlements are exchange-reported twice a month and publish on a lag — the print you are reading is already days old. Second, the volume denominator moves: a name can drop off the days-to-cover list on a volume spike alone, with not a single short closing (the GME January 2021 receipt is the canonical example). Third, high short interest is a description, not a verdict — heavily shorted names include both future squeezes and companies the market has correctly diagnosed; the table cannot tell you which is which, and neither can anyone selling you a screener.

Most shorted stocks FAQ

What is the most shorted stock right now?

By days to cover among liquid names, MPT leads the latest settlement at 16.9 days. By absolute shares short, PLUG leads with 340.7 million shares. Both tables above refresh as settlements publish.

Why do the two "most shorted" lists disagree?

They measure different things: shares short (size) versus shares short relative to daily volume (crowding). Mega-caps dominate the size list — everything about them is big — while the crowding list surfaces names where the short position is large for that stock's tape.

Does high short interest mean a short squeeze is coming?

No. It is a precondition, not a prediction — most heavily shorted stocks never squeeze. The squeeze explainer documents what the setup looked like the one famous time it fully fired.

How current is this data?

Each table reads the newest settlement on file (dated in the first table's settled column) and this page regenerates on refresh. Short interest is exchange-reported twice monthly with a publication lag of one to several weeks.

Every table is a stored, versioned query over the exchange-reported file — expand the SQL, or screen the full universe your own way on the Strasmore terminal.