How to Find Short Interest
Short interest is the number of shares of a stock that traders are currently selling short. The level of short interest shows the sentiment of traders concerning a possible price decline for the stock. Stock market investors can use the short interest amount for a stock to determine whether it is a good investment or as a contrarian indicator that the stock has been oversold and is due for a rebound. Finding short interest only requires some basic research.
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Instructions
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Look up the stock symbol and stock exchange for each company on which you want the short interest. You can find the symbols on the financial news websites or through the symbol look-up screen of your online brokerage account. Short interest data is available for stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ stock exchange.
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Open the NASDAQ short interest webpage for NASDAQ-listed stocks or the NYSE short interest page of the Wall Street Journal online for NYSE-listed stocks (see Resources).
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Enter the stock symbol and select "Search" on the NASDAQ website or look up the stock by title for NYSE stocks on the Wall Street Journal webpage.
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Note or write down the current and previous short interest in shares and number of days to cover. The days to cover is an indication of the short interest in relation to the stock's average trading volume.
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Tips & Warnings
Short interest information is updated twice a month, on the 15th and at the end.
Abrupt changes in the level of short interest, especially an increasing short interest, can indicate a changing market sentiment about a stock.
A short squeeze happens when the short interest on a stock becomes so large, the buying by short sellers to close their positions drives up the stock's price. As it rises, more short sellers will buy to cover, further pushing up the price. The result can be a rapid increase in the price of a stock that the short selling has driven down.
