oldgoldbug

Stocks with the Highest Short Interest

Sorry last sentence should be:
The long interest is the float. High short % presumably increases buying interest above normal trading volumes.

Stocks with the Highest Short Interest

Shorted stocks supposedly are borrowed from longs via the longs' brokers and sold. (I say supposedly because naked shorting has become quite the fashion but I will let more sophisticated traders tell us how that works.) The short speculator or arbitrager has cash and owes the long the stock. Should the stock go down, the short purchases it on the open market and returns the stock to the long. The difference is the profit. Should the stock go up, the short must repurchase at a loss and replace. Thus the % of the stock float sold short shows you how much potential pent-up buying exists in a given security. If the shorts are wrong about a stock, their buying tacked on to normal buying can result in excessive movements to the upside.
Thus the float is the long interest plus the short covering potential.