Bears Pile In as Wolfspeed, Grindr Lead the Week's Shorts

Short sellers sharpened their bets across several names this week. Data from ORTEX as of 28 October shows the clearest moves came in mid-cap growth stocks, not the usual micro-cap suspects.

WOLF remains one of the most-shorted liquid names in the US market. Short interest sits at 88.3% of free float, with availability at zero. Bears cannot easily add more, yet existing positions have not unwound.

GRND saw one of the sharpest weekly jumps. Short interest rose 6.6 percentage points in seven days to 20.5% of free float. Shares have attracted growing social attention this year.

LQDA climbed similarly, up 8.3 points to 26.8% of free float. The biotech fights a long-running patent dispute. Availability stands at 450%, meaning borrowed supply is not the constraint.

CBRS, the AI chip newcomer that listed recently, added 4.9 points to reach 20.2%. Sceptics appear to be fading its post-IPO premium.

EVCM carries the highest short score of any name above $1 billion, at 96.9. Its cost to borrow hit 78.4% annualised. Availability is near zero at 0.9%, a sharp squeeze would be difficult to escape for late shorts.

On the Russell 2000 rebalance radar, tomorrow is the cut-off date for the December review. ORTEX Index Rebalance Radar flags VSAT and Twist Bioscience as facing rising deletion odds, jumping to 80% overnight, forced selling at 8.8x normal volume is possible on 11 December if those calls hold.