Short selling & short interest
Short selling is betting a stock will fall by borrowing and selling shares; short interest is the total number of shares currently sold short.
A short seller borrows shares, sells them, and hopes to buy them back later at a lower price — profiting if the stock falls and losing if it rises. Short interest is the aggregate count of a company’s shares currently held short. A high or rising short interest means many traders are betting against the stock, which can reflect skepticism about the business.
Short interest is a two-sided signal. It can flag genuine doubts, but a heavily shorted stock that rises can force short sellers to buy back shares to cut losses, driving the price up further — a "short squeeze." Short interest data is reported with a lag and is not a real-time or a directional prediction.
stocks-llm ingests official FINRA short-interest data, shown with its settlement date. It reports the raw reported figures and days-to-cover; it does not compute a percentage of float or predict squeezes, and short interest is never presented as a buy or sell signal.
See more terms in the stocks-llm glossary.
Informational only — NOT financial advice. This is an educational definition, not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Metrics on stocks-llm are delayed data and may be missing or stale. Always verify information independently and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.