Bears Pile Into Chewy; Tesla Shorts Retreat

Short sellers are moving fast this week. Chewy saw the biggest SI jump among large US names, with short interest rising to 91.5% of free float from 87.3% a week ago, a 4.3 percentage point move. Shares to borrow are still plentiful at 404% availability, so bears have room to add.

Wolfspeed stays in focus with SI at 82.6% of free float and zero shares available to borrow. That combination of extreme shorts and no availability raises squeeze risk sharply. Hertz sits at 73.2% with a cost to borrow of 33%, another name shorts are paying dearly to hold.

Tesla tells the opposite story. SI sits at just 2.5% of free float ahead of its Q3 report on 21 October. ORTEX alt data shows German car registrations running 269% above the same quarter last year, a dataset with a 43-day lead on Tesla revenue. That points higher for the quarter being reported.

Red Violet caught retail attention on 19 October, with Wikipedia page views running 10 standard deviations above their own history. SI is light at 4.8%, so no obvious short setup, but the spike in interest is worth watching.

Lucky Strike Entertainment carries an ORTEX short score of 95.7 with SI at 17.6% and only 44% availability of short interest, suggesting bears are growing more aggressive in the leisure space.