Bears Retreat From Biotech as New Shorts Pile Into Micro-Caps

Short sellers covered hard in several mid-cap names this week. IBTA saw the sharpest move among liquid stocks. Its SI % of free float dropped 7.9 percentage points in seven days, falling to 37.3%. SVRA shed 11.1 points to reach 25.4%. GLOB fell 9.9 points to 21%.

On the other side of the ledger, WOLF remains the most-shorted name with genuine size. The semiconductor maker carries 84.4% SI % FF with 9.6 days to cover and zero availability. That combination makes a squeeze mechanically difficult but costly for longs to fight.

HTZ stays heavily shorted at 71.4% SI % FF. Cost to borrow stands at 28.4% APR. LCID sits at 64.3% with availability near zero and 15 days to cover, one of the tightest setups in the mid-cap space.

Among the week's biggest new short builds, micro-cap XXII saw SI jump 87.7 points to 128% of free float. AKAN surged 53.5 points to 56.5%.

CHWY remains the standout large-cap bear target. SI holds at 86.5% of free float against a $8.8 billion market cap. Days to cover sits at 2.7. Availability is ample at 566%, meaning fresh shorts can still get in cheaply. Cost to borrow is just 0.39% APR.

With the Russell 2000 rank date on 30 October, index mechanics are adding another layer of pressure. Life Time Group Holdings sits on the exact boundary between Russell 1000 and Russell 2000, with $937 million of forced selling hanging on which side it closes. That kind of flow can move heavily shorted small-caps sharply.