Short sellers in CUE — Cue Biopharma — have retreated sharply. They left behind a lending market under real strain.
Short interest collapsed 83% in one week, falling to just 1.1% of free float. That rapid exit drove cost to borrow up 158% in the same period, to 12.6% APR. Availability has tightened to a 52-week extreme.
When a heavily shorted stock rallies hard, short sellers buy back shares to close positions. CUE rose 81% over the past month. That price action forced covering on a significant scale — short shares dropped from roughly 5.2 million to 873,000 in one week.
The covering did not loosen the borrow market. It tightened it. The remaining short positions are competing for a much smaller pool of lendable shares. Availability is now at the lowest level in 52 weeks.
Cost to borrow hit 12.6% APR as of April 29. That is a 957% jump from just one month ago. In mid-March, CUE borrowed at around 1.2–1.9%. The cost escalated through April as short interest peaked — reaching 37.3% briefly on April 13 — then spiked again as the squeeze compressed the lending pool.
The ORTEX short score stands at 73.3 today. It reached 85.7 on April 23, at the height of the squeeze pressure. It has eased slightly but remains elevated, ranking in the 8th percentile for short score — meaning it sits among the most tightly positioned names in the market.
The put/call ratio sits at 0.08, well below its 20-day mean of 0.11. That is near the 52-week low of 0.0. Options positioning is skewed heavily toward calls. This aligns with the price recovery — bulls dominate the options market right now.
Earnings are scheduled for May 13. The last two earnings events produced sharp single-day drops of 10–13%, with one followed by a 69% five-day recovery. With availability at a 52-week low and cost to borrow still elevated, any renewed short interest could face a very tight lending market heading into that event.
Data summary — as of April 29, 2026
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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