Bears Pile Into Chewy; MVIS Retail Buzz Spikes

Short sellers added to bets against CHWY last week. Short interest rose 4.3 percentage points to 91.5% of free float. That is one of the highest readings among mid-cap US names right now, and it kept climbing as the stock drifted lower over the prior quarter.

WOLF (Wolfspeed) tells the other side of the story. SI fell nearly 5 points to 82.6% of free float. Availability stands at zero, meaning shares to borrow are essentially gone. A short squeeze remains a live risk if any positive catalyst hits the semiconductor name.

The week's sharpest SI increases outside those two included IBTA (Ibotta, up 2.8pp to 46.2%) and CRWV (CoreWeave, up 2pp to 21.1%). Both are recent market arrivals where short sellers continue to press.

On the social radar, MVIS (MicroVision) caught retail attention on 19 October. Wikipedia page views ran 10 standard deviations above their own history, per ORTEX Alt Data. SI stands at 22.9% of free float with a cost to borrow of 96.5%. That combination of elevated SI and a retail attention spike is worth watching closely.

TSLA reports earnings tomorrow. Short interest is modest at 2.5% of free float. ORTEX Alt Data shows German car registrations running 269% above the same quarter last year, a dataset measured to lead Tesla revenue by 43 days.