Bears Pile Into Power and EVs as Halloween Closes Out October

Short sellers ended October with fresh bets against energy and electric vehicle names. Data from ORTEX as of 29 October shows some clear movers over the past week.

Talen Energy saw the sharpest increase among large-caps. Short interest jumped from 6.2% to 10.8% of free float in just seven days. That is a 4.6 percentage point rise for the $16.7B power producer.

Wolfspeed remains one of the most heavily shorted stocks in the market. Short interest sits at 88.6% of free float. It ticked up another 4.8 points this week, and zero shares are available to borrow. The cost to borrow is modest at 2%, but supply is gone.

EV names continue to attract heavy bearish positioning. Lucid Group holds 65.1% short interest of free float. Hertz sits at 73.5%, with a cost to borrow of 150%. That cost reflects extreme scarcity of available shares.

On the squeeze radar, Astera Labs is one to watch. Short sellers cut positions by 0.5 points ahead of its Monday earnings print. ORTEX data shows broader short covering in the chip space into earnings season.

Cerebras Systems saw shorts build to 20.1% of free float, up from 14.9% last week. The AI chip maker went public recently and is drawing growing scepticism.

EV registration data adds context to the bearish EV bets. New electric vehicle registrations in the US fell 29% year-on-year in August 2026 to 6,635 units, according to ORTEX Alt Data. That is the sharpest annual drop in monthly EV first-registrations on record in this series.