High short interest stocks today: top 50 squeeze leaderboard
// live leaderboard · short interest · borrow fee · days to cover · float utilization
Today's top short squeeze candidates as of September 21 — a daily 0-100 ranking built from FINRA short interest, IBKR borrow fee, float utilization, days to cover, and 5-day price momentum, z-score normalized across roughly 500 active US equities and recomputed after every market close.
Top 50 short squeeze candidates
What's moving the top squeeze candidates
Tapeboard's AI reads each ticker's live data, structural squeeze inputs, and recent price action, then writes a grounded five-part breakdown, what's moving it, the bull case, the bear case, risk flags, and open unknowns. It's a research tool, not advice.
What's moving the tape on XENE, grounded in Tapeboard's data. Not investment advice.
As of
- Recent news: "Why Xenon Pharmaceuticals (XENE) Is Down 32.2% After Pausing Psychiatry Trials Despite Positive NDA Data" - Yahoo - Recent news: "XENE Stock Plummets as Xenon Pharmaceuticals Pauses Drug Trial" - Yahoo - Recent news: "Xenon Stock Craters 30% on Drug Trial Setback. Its Failure Could Be This Biotech’s Gain." - Yahoo
- The company has submitted a New Drug Application to the US FDA for azetukalner in focal seizures, supported by two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. - Analysts have expressed optimism about the company's prospects, with some arguing that the recent setback may be an opportunity for the biotech.
- The company has paused new enrollment in its Phase 3 major depressive disorder and bipolar depression studies due to neuropsychiatric events. - The recent stock price decline may be a sign of investor skepticism about the company's ability to overcome regulatory hurdles.
- The company's short interest is high, with a squeeze score of 25.7/100 and 9.36 days to cover. - The company's recent financial performance has been weak, with a net loss of $345.91 million in 2025.
- The outcome of the FDA review of the New Drug Application for azetukalner in focal seizures is uncertain. - The impact of the paused clinical trials on the company's future prospects is unclear. --- This is an automated summary of publicly available data, not financial advice. It is for informational purposes only — nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Do your own research and consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
New to short squeezes? Start here.
A short squeeze happens when a heavily-shorted stock starts rising and short sellers are forced to buy back shares to close their positions, that buying pushes the price up further, forcing more covering, and so on. The columns above tell you whether the structural conditions for a squeeze exist. Here's what each one means in plain English:
A high score doesn't mean a stock will squeeze, it means the structural ingredients are there. Squeezes still need a catalyst (earnings, news, a forced buyer) to ignite. Read our methodology for the full formula and source citations.
What is a short squeeze?
A short squeeze is a rapid price increase in a stock driven primarily by short sellers being forced to close their positions. When a heavily-shorted stock starts rising, traders who borrowed shares to sell them short face mounting losses; once those losses exceed their margin tolerance, brokers issue margin calls and shorts must buy back shares to close out, that buying pushes the price higher still, triggering more margin calls in a feedback loop. The mechanic is purely structural: high short interest plus a spark plus tight share availability equals an air pocket on the upside.
The conditions that pre-load a squeeze are well-documented. Short interest as a percentage of float measures how much of the tradable share supply has been borrowed and sold short, anything above 20% is elevated, 30% is high, and 40%+ is rare and usually unsustainable. Borrow fee is the annualized cost lenders charge to lend shares; when fees climb past 10-20% per annum the borrow desk is flagging that supply has run out. Float utilization tracks how much of the brokerage's available borrow inventory is already lent, utilization above 90% means the next short seller has nowhere to source shares without paying punitive rates. Days to cover divides total short interest by average daily volume, so a DTC of 5+ means it would take a full week of normal volume just to unwind the existing short positions.
Each of those metrics on its own produces too many false positives. Combined into a single composite score, with weights derived from the named squeeze events of 2021-2023 (GME, AMC, BBBY, KOSS, BBIG), the signal cleans up considerably. That is the score Tapeboard publishes here. Inputs come from FINRA bi-monthly settlement files (via Yahoo Finance), Interactive Brokers' real-time stock-loan inventory, and Tapeboard's own price feed for the momentum component. The full formula, including the z-score normalization step and the weight assigned to each component, is documented at /methodology/short-squeeze-score.
A high score is descriptive, not predictive. It tells you a ticker has the structural ingredients for a squeeze; it does not tell you a squeeze will happen. Squeezes need a catalyst, earnings beat, regulatory approval, activist short report rebuttal, a cluster of insider buys, or in the case of GME in January 2021, a coordinated retail flow. The score quantifies the powder; the catalyst lights the fuse. Pair the leaderboard with the news feed, the SEC filings surface, and the options-flow scanner, those are where catalysts surface in advance.
How Nasdaq's new delisting rule changes the short squeeze trade
In July 2026 Nasdaq approved SR-NASDAQ-2026-004, a $5 million MVLS continued-listing floor for all three market tiers (Global Select, Global, and Capital Market). MVLS, or Market Value of Listed Securities, is the consolidated closing bid multiplied by the total outstanding listed shares. When a stock's MVLS stays below $5M for 30 consecutive business days, the approved rule directs Nasdaq Staff to issue an immediate delisting determination — no cure period. However, the SEC stayed the approval on 2026-07-29 under Rule 431(e) (petitions by Cemtrex and the Small Public Company Coalition), so while the stay holds no determination can issue and the clock is a stress gauge, not an active process.
This matters for short squeeze trading because the names that carry the highest short interest and tightest borrow are disproportionately micro-cap and low-priced — exactly the names now at risk under the $5M floor. A high squeeze score tells you the structural ingredients for a squeeze exist. A delisting clock tells you the same name faces a regulatory deadline that can force selling independent of any catalyst. The two can coincide, and when they do, the trade archetype is fundamentally different from a standalone squeeze: the long side faces OTC liquidity collapse and forced selling pressure, while the short side faces a potential buyout or reverse-split-driven rebalancing. Neither side is a clean trade.
The rule also stacks with SR-NASDAQ-2025-065 (January 2025), which closed the "keep re-splitting to stay listed" escape hatch. Under that rule, a reverse split in the prior 12 months combined with a fall below $1 bid means no cure period — immediate delisting. A cumulative 250:1 reverse split over two years triggers automatic delisting. Critically, a reverse split does not change MVLS: the market cap stays the same, just fewer shares at a higher price. So a reverse split cannot fix the $5M MVLS floor problem either. The two rules together create a pincer — a heavily-shorted sub-$5M-MVLS name with a recent reverse split has very few remaining escape routes.
Tapeboard is the only short squeeze leaderboard that cross-references the MVLS delisting clock directly against the squeeze score. The table above lists every ticker that appears on both. Read it as a risk overlay, not a buy list: a name that is high-squeeze-score AND on the delisting clock is not the same trade as a name that is high-squeeze-score alone. The squeeze score is replicable from public FINRA and IBKR data; the squeeze-plus-delisting cross-reference is the moat.
// This is not investment advice. MVLS figures carry a source provenance (closing bid source + shares-outstanding source + as-of date); data more than 90 days stale is caveated. Ticklers that cannot confidently compute MVLS (missing bid or shares outstanding) are excluded from the cross-reference, never published with a bad number.
Short squeeze FAQ
How fresh is this data?
This page mixes two cadences, and they are labeled separately. Borrow fee, price, and 5-day momentum are live and were last rebuilt on 2026-09-21; they refresh daily after every market close. Short interest is a slow metric: the most recent short interest is settled as of Aug 31, 2026, because FINRA publishes short interest on a settlement schedule (historically bi-monthly) and the figure is held between readings. That is not staleness, it is how short interest works, there is no real-time short interest in US markets. The SI as-of date is stamped directly on the short-interest column and below the table so the number is never presented as today's value.
How does Tapeboard calculate its Short Squeeze Score?
The Tapeboard Short Squeeze Score is a 0-100 composite that combines seven inputs with fixed weights (v2): short interest as a percentage of float (25%), Interactive Brokers borrow fee (20%), float utilization (15%), FINRA CNMS daily short-volume ratio (15%), days to cover (10%), trailing 5-day price momentum (10%), and borrow-fee 5-day change (5%). Each input is z-score normalized against a daily universe of approximately 500 active US equities, then combined into the weighted sum and clamped to the 0-100 range. The full formula and source citations are published at /methodology/short-squeeze-score.
How often does the leaderboard update?
The leaderboard recomputes once daily after the US market close, typically by 9 PM ET, after FINRA settlement files post and IBKR refreshes its borrow inventory. Borrow fees and float utilization update daily; short interest updates bi-monthly on FINRA's schedule, with a roughly 10-business-day delay. Real-time short interest does not exist publicly in US markets.
What does a high short squeeze score mean?
A score of 70+ means the ticker shows multiple squeeze conditions simultaneously, high short interest, elevated borrow fee, tight float utilization, an extended days-to-cover ratio, and constructive recent price action. The score is descriptive of structural conditions, not predictive of an actual squeeze. Most squeezes require a catalyst (earnings, news, a forced buyer) to ignite covering pressure on top of the structural setup.
What is the FINRA Threshold Securities List and why does it matter?
The FINRA Threshold Securities List flags stocks where aggregate failures-to-deliver have exceeded 10,000 shares and 0.5% of total shares outstanding for at least five consecutive settlement days. Inclusion confirms covering pressure already exists in the market, sellers (often shorts) have not been able to deliver shares they sold. Threshold inclusion is a backward-looking confirmation, not a forward signal, but it is the cleanest public indicator that settlement-level squeeze pressure is real.
What stocks are most vulnerable to a short squeeze right now?
Tickers at the top of Tapeboard's leaderboard, sortable above by score, short interest percentage, borrow fee, days to cover, or float utilization, show the strongest current structural setup. Click any ticker to open its dedicated squeeze page with the full component breakdown, 30-day score history, and threshold-list status.
Is the short squeeze score available for all stocks?
The score is computed for a universe of roughly 500 US-listed common stocks with average daily dollar volume above $5M and current market cap above $50M. Tickers outside that universe, micro-caps below $50M, OTC names, ETFs, ADRs without sufficient volume, are not scored. Tickers can move into and out of the universe daily as their volume and market cap change.
What is the Nasdaq $5M MVLS delisting floor and how does it relate to short squeezes?
In July 2026 Nasdaq's SR-NASDAQ-2026-004 was approved, setting a $5 million MVLS (Market Value of Listed Securities) continued-listing floor for all Nasdaq tiers. MVLS is the consolidated closing bid multiplied by total outstanding listed shares. Under the rule as approved, 30 consecutive business days below $5M triggers an immediate delisting determination with no cure period — but the SEC stayed the rule on 2026-07-29 (Rule 431(e)), so no determinations are being issued while the stay holds. It matters for squeeze trading because the highest short-interest, tightest-borrow names are disproportionately micro-cap and low-priced, exactly the names the $5M floor would hit if the stay lifts. Tapeboard is the only short squeeze leaderboard that cross-references the MVLS delisting clock directly against the squeeze score.
What happens when a short squeeze stock is also on the Nasdaq delisting clock?
When a ticker appears on both the squeeze leaderboard and the Nasdaq MVLS delisting watchlist, it represents a structurally different trade archetype than a standalone squeeze. The long side faces OTC liquidity collapse and forced selling pressure from the regulatory deadline, while the short side faces a potential buyout or reverse-split-driven rebalancing. Neither side is a clean trade. A high squeeze score describes structural squeeze conditions; a delisting clock describes regulatory risk. The two can coincide, which is why Tapeboard publishes a dedicated cross-reference table above. This is not a buy or sell recommendation.
Can a reverse split save a stock from the $5M MVLS delisting floor?
No. A reverse split does not change MVLS — the market capitalization stays the same, just fewer shares at a higher price. So a 1-for-10 reverse split that lifts a stock from $0.50 to $5.00 leaves the MVLS unchanged. This is why SR-NASDAQ-2026-004 ($5M floor) and SR-NASDAQ-2025-065 (reverse-split restrictions) create a pincer: the 2025 rule closed the re-split-to-stay-listed escape hatch by denying cure periods to names with a reverse split in the prior 12 months, and the 2026 rule adds an MVLS floor that a reverse split cannot fix. A heavily-shorted sub-$5M-MVLS name with a recent reverse split has very few remaining escape routes.
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