Most Shorted Stocks Today: May 18, 2026 — Top 25 Squeeze Candidates
ENVB tops Tapeboard's most-shorted-stocks board on May 18, 2026 with a perfect 100 squeeze score, driven by a 260.1% annualized borrow fee against 45.7% short interest.
ENVB tops Tapeboard's most-shorted-stocks board on May 18, 2026 with a perfect 100 squeeze score, fueled by an outlier 260.1% annualized borrow fee against 45.7% short interest and just 0.1 days to cover. Twenty of the top 25 names are flagged on the FINRA threshold list for sustained heavy short-side volume, and eight tickers — led by GRPN (59.2%) and RH (55.8%) — show short interest above 35% of float.
May 18, 2026 Top 25 Short Squeeze Candidates
| Rank | Symbol | Squeeze Score | SI % Float | Borrow Fee | Days to Cover | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ENVB | 100 | 45.7% | 260.1% | 0.1 | |
| 2 | GRPN | 94.2 | 59.2% | 1.1% | 6.7 | T |
| 4 | RH | 81 | 55.8% | 0.4% | 3.2 | T |
| 5 | CLSK | 78.4 | 49.5% | 0.3% | 4.5 | T |
| 6 | RXRX | 72.4 | 34.2% | 0.9% | 15.0 | T |
| 7 | NVAX | 72.1 | 30.3% | 0.4% | 15.6 | T |
| 8 | BTDR | 70.2 | 34.7% | 0.8% | 8.2 | T |
| 9 | NTLA | 70.1 | 39.3% | 0.4% | 6.8 | T |
| 11 | AI | 69.2 | 35.2% | 0.4% | 10.2 | |
| 12 | IBRX | 69.1 | 35.6% | 6.2% | 9.3 | T |
| 13 | EVGO | 68.5 | 33.5% | 0.7% | 11.9 | T |
| 14 | PLAY | 65.2 | 34.0% | 0.5% | 4.5 | |
| 15 | INDI | 65.2 | 29.4% | 2.9% | 13.4 | T |
| 16 | PCRX | 65.1 | 28.6% | 0.4% | 14.9 | T |
| 18 | LCID | 63.5 | 35.8% | 10.7% | 3.0 | T |
| 19 | CSIQ | 63.5 | 31.4% | 0.9% | 6.7 | T |
| 20 | ARCT | 63.5 | 28.2% | 0.5% | 15.5 | T |
| 21 | TRIP | 62.7 | 31.9% | 0.4% | 9.1 | T |
| 22 | UPST | 62.1 | 32.3% | 0.4% | 6.2 | T |
| 23 | BEAM | 60.9 | 31.5% | 0.3% | 9.7 | T |
| 24 | PRME | 60.7 | 21.5% | 0.4% | 16.4 | T |
| 25 | CRSP | 60.2 | 26.7% | 0.5% | 12.9 | T |
| 26 | ASAN | 59.9 | 30.9% | 0.5% | 4.5 | T |
| 27 | TGTX | 59.5 | 25.5% | 0.3% | 14.9 | |
| 28 | IOVA | 59.5 | 27.5% | 0.4% | 8.1 |
Top 5 Short Squeeze Setups for May 18, 2026
1. ENVB — Squeeze Score 100
ENVB carries a 260.1% annualized borrow fee — the only triple-digit fee on the board today — against 45.7% short interest, just 0.1 days to cover, and float utilization of 24.6%. Price closed at $2.21, down 3.1% over the last five sessions. This is the textbook small-float biotech under acute borrow stress: a sub-day coverage runway means even moderate buying pressure has nowhere to absorb without forcing shorts to bid for stock. ENVB does not sit on the FINRA threshold list today, so the pressure is concentrated in the stock-loan market rather than in daily short-side volume. If borrow availability tightens further or a single block buyer steps in, there is essentially no supply cushion to dampen the move.
2. GRPN — Squeeze Score 94.2
GRPN posts the highest raw short interest on the board at 59.2% of float, with float utilization at 57.1% — more than half of available stock-loan inventory is already lent out. The borrow fee remains benign at 1.1%, but days to cover sits at 6.7, five-day momentum is +6.2%, and price closed at $17.80. Threshold-flagged. This is the crowded-short-on-a-rising-name setup: short interest is structurally high while the borrow desk approaches its supply limit. If utilization pushes through the 70-80% band, fee rates can reprice sharply within a single session, which itself becomes a forcing function for the more fee-sensitive part of the short book.
4. RH — Squeeze Score 81
RH is the rare mid-cap consumer name on this leaderboard, trading at $139 with +8.8% momentum over five sessions. Short interest is 55.8% of float, days to cover 3.2, borrow fee just 0.4%, threshold-flagged. The setup is unusual: a heavily-shorted stock where borrow is still cheap and available, but bears now face a tape grinding higher. With only 3.2 days of coverage at recent volume, a gap-up open compresses that window quickly — and unlike the biotechs further down the list, the dollar size of the short book here means cover orders move the print.
5. CLSK — Squeeze Score 78.4
CLSK carries 49.5% short interest, 4.5 days to cover, and the strongest five-session momentum in the top ten at +12.7%. Borrow fee is cheap at 0.3%, price $15.83, threshold-flagged. The squeeze mechanic here is momentum-driven: shorts are sitting on a name already trending against them, and float utilization of 40.4% leaves headroom for additional borrow — until the fee resets. Bitcoin-correlated miners tend to re-rate fast when spot moves, and the stock-loan desk follows; a sustained move higher in the underlying typically pulls fees up within days, which then forces the marginal short.
6. RXRX — Squeeze Score 72.4
RXRX shows a different profile — moderate short interest at 34.2%, but 15.0 days to cover, the second-highest figure in the top ten. Borrow fee is 0.9%, momentum +2.3%, price $3.11, threshold-flagged. The 15-day coverage runway is the operative number: any forced-in buying — an index bid, a positive trial readout, a partner announcement — meets a structurally thin daily seller base. The data does not predict a catalyst; it describes the mechanics of what happens if one arrives.
Stocks Flagged on the FINRA Threshold List
The "T" column marks names that appear on the FINRA Consolidated NMS daily short-volume file with sustained heavy short pressure — specifically, short-side volume exceeding 50% of total volume within the last seven trading days. Twenty of the top 25 today carry the flag, which means the short-side pressure on this leaderboard is broad rather than isolated to a handful of high-fee names. See /methodology/short-squeeze-score for how the threshold input is weighted alongside borrow and float data.
How the Tapeboard Squeeze Score Is Built
The Tapeboard short squeeze score blends five inputs: short interest as a percent of float (35%, sourced from Yahoo), annualized borrow fee (25%, IBKR via iborrowdesk), float utilization (20%), days to cover (15%), and trailing five-day price momentum (5%, Schwab). The output is a 0-100 ranking that surfaces names where multiple short-side pressures stack, rather than relying on any single metric. Full weighting and edge-case handling are documented at /methodology/short-squeeze-score.
The live leaderboard refreshes intraday and reranks tomorrow with the next FINRA short-volume file.