GME: Cohen Buys More, Bears Buy Back In

Short positioning tells the other side, and the contrast is sharpening. Short interest ended October 6 at 7.2% of the free float, roughly 32.3 million shares, up from a recent low of 29.7 million on September 30. That is a recovery of about 2.6 million shares in less than a week, or roughly one million per session. The pace is measured rather than aggressive, but the direction has flipped. Shorts were cutting through most of September, with the position falling from a peak near 64 million shares in early September to the 29-30 million range by month-end, more than a 50% reduction. Now they are rebuilding. The borrow market gives them plenty of room to do so: availability is running at 271%, meaning there are nearly three shares available to borrow for every one already borrowed. Borrowing costs remain negligible at 0.43%, roughly a third of where they were in early September. There is no squeeze pressure in the lending market at present.

Options traders are not adding drama to this standoff. The put/call ratio is 0.26, fractionally below its 20-day average of 0.262 and near the lowest reading of the past year. That is an unusually call-heavy book, consistent with the retail community that has always been the loudest voice in GME's options market. The PCR z-score of -0.48 signals no meaningful deviation from recent norms. Positioning looks calm relative to the activity in the underlying stock.

The Street view on GameStop has not changed in over a year. The most recent analyst action on record is a reiteration of Wedbush's Underperform from June 2025, with a $13.50 target. At $24.76, the stock trades nearly double that figure, a gap that reflects how little the formal analyst community engages with the name. The fundamental backdrop has not resolved the tension: gross margins improved to 34.5%, lifted by collectibles growth of 54.6%, but hardware sales fell 31.7% and software dropped 26.7%. The $1.5 billion convertible note raise provides liquidity, but no one on the Street is framing this as a growth story. The short score of 55.5 sits at a moderate level, down from the mid-to-high 50s in late September when the position was larger.

The key question heading toward the December 8 earnings date is whether the short rebuild holds or reverses. Cohen's buying has now produced a 29% one-month gain in the stock but only a modest lift on the week, and the bears absorbed both the price rise and the insider disclosure without cutting materially. What to watch is whether the daily short interest additions continue through October, and whether the call-heavy options skew shifts toward more defensive positioning as the next earnings event draws closer.