short interest

noun

Finance.

1. the total amount by which a single seller or all sellers are short in a particular stock or commodity or in the market as a whole.

Word History and Origins

Origin of short interest¹

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

Example Sentences

Elevated short interest, a weak fundamental business, and a healthy dose of drama — he pointed out that Martin Shkreli, once known as the “pharma bro” due to the controversial drug-pricing policies of a company he formerly led, said he was betting against Beyond Meat in a recent post on X. Shkreli also posted on X about betting against Opendoor, another meme stock, earlier this year.

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Tom Bruni, head of markets and retail investor insights at Stocktwits, said that the rapid run-up in Beyond Meat’s shares, coupled with its high short interest, had landed the company on meme-stock traders’ radars.

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On Reddit, much of the commentary hit on familiar themes, with investors focusing on the high short interest in the stock.

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They also had to have high short interest, with many featuring short interest as a percentage of their total shares outstanding in the teens or higher, versus high single digits on average between the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

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Boston Scientific is highlighted as an example, with 20 million shares sold short and a 1.3% short interest, indicating a potential buying opportunity ahead of its October 22 earnings report.

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