Bears Target EVs as Short Interest Builds

EV stocks are drawing heavy short attention into Halloween. Wolfspeed leads the pack. Its SI % FF hit 88.6%, up 4.8 percentage points in just one week. Availability is zero, meaning shares to borrow are effectively gone.

Lucid Group sits at 65.1% SI % FF with a cost to borrow of nearly 16%. Polestar carries an eye-catching 182% CTB. ORTEX Alt Data shows Dutch car registrations, a leading indicator for Polestar revenue, are running -37% year-on-year with three months of data in. That backdrop gives bears confidence.

First-time EV registrations dropped 29% in August. Non-plug hybrid stock fell to its lowest since 2015. These readings are fuelling the bearish mood across the EV space.

Carvana is a different kind of concern. Its SI % FF is a modest 9.4%, but ORTEX Alt Data flags its ABS trust delinquencies at 4.6 standard deviations above history. That is the largest outlier in the consumer credit dataset.

Biggest weekly SI mover among mid-caps: Surrozen, up 11.3 points to 35.3% in seven days. Liquidia gained 8.1 points to 26.6%.

EverCommerce holds the highest ORTEX short score at 97. Its CTB is 87.6% with near-zero availability. Short sellers are deeply committed and finding it hard to add more.