Bears Pile Into Housing and Auto Stocks

Short sellers stepped up bets across homebuilders and a trio of distressed names last week, with DFH leading the charge among movers.

Dream Finders Homes saw short interest jump 9.5 percentage points in seven days to 42% of free float. Bears appear unconvinced by the housing cycle. ORTEX alt data shows Australian owner-occupied housing loans hit a record high in September, but US homebuilders face a different story, with rate pressure keeping short sellers active.

Liquidia Corporation climbed 7.6 points to 26.5% short interest. The pharma firm is caught in ongoing patent litigation. Short availability sits at 431% of current short interest, so there is no squeeze pressure yet.

Wolfspeed remains one of the most structurally shorted mid-caps, with 86.5% of free float sold short and zero shares available to borrow. Cost to borrow has ticked up to 2.2%. A squeeze would require substantial short covering with no easy supply.

Hertz Global Holdings is another extreme case: 73.4% short, a cost to borrow of 161.6%, and zero availability. Social platforms have flagged HTZ repeatedly this year. That CTB is punishing for anyone carrying the position through earnings.

EverCommerce tops the ORTEX short score table at 97. It carries 15% SI of free float and a 85% cost to borrow, with only 0.5% availability. Institutions are paying up to stay short.

On the index radar, Flutter Entertainment and Textron both face 70%-plus MSCI World deletion odds ahead of the 11 November announcement, which could force over $1.7B in combined tracker selling.