GD Culture Group enters its May 15 earnings with a remarkable price run at its back — and short sellers quietly stepping aside.
The stock has doubled over the past month, closing at $5.99 on May 5. That +22% single-day move capped a week in which GDC gained more than 50%. The rally is striking given how little fundamental data underpins the move: this is a sub-$400M market cap advertising micro-cap with no recent analyst coverage to anchor valuation expectations.
The clearest read from the positioning data is that bears have not been driving this story. Short interest is a negligible 0.16% of free float — roughly 86,000 shares — and has actually fallen by a third over the past month as the stock ran. That says shorts were cutting exposure into the move, not adding pressure. Availability is extraordinarily loose at over 1,600% of existing short interest, meaning there is no scarcity in the lending pool and no mechanical squeeze forcing anyone out. The ORTEX short score confirms the retreat: it dropped from 61.1 on April 22 all the way to 41.5 by May 5, the sharpest ten-day compression in the recent history, and the lowest reading of the series. Bears have largely cleared the field.
Cost to borrow tells a more nuanced story. At 36.7% APR it remains elevated — and has been for most of the past six weeks, oscillating between 12% at its April 9–10 low and a peak near 49% on April 14 and April 30. That kind of volatility in borrow cost on a stock with ample availability is unusual. It reflects a premium for the stock's own choppiness rather than a lending-supply squeeze: lenders are pricing the headline risk of a fast-moving micro-cap, not rationing scarce shares. The CTB has eased about 5% on the week, moving broadly sideways as the stock surged.
Among the closest correlated peers on Nasdaq, WiMi Hologram Cloud slid 6.4% over the same week and Ambrus Group was roughly flat at +0.9%. GDC's 51% weekly gain stands in sharp contrast to both — a signal this move is idiosyncratic rather than sector-driven. Institutional ownership remains thin and largely unchanged since mid-2025, with the top reported holders being named individuals rather than active fund managers. Wolverine Asset Management added 100,520 shares through March 2026, but at current prices that remains a negligible position.
Earnings are confirmed for May 15. The four most recent results have produced 1-day moves of roughly +1%, +2%, -5.4%, and +5.2% — relatively contained on the day. The five-day reaction after the April 10 announcement, however, stretched to nearly +31%, suggesting the stock can sustain momentum well beyond the initial print. With the short score now at its lowest recent reading and the rally having compressed the short base so heavily, what to watch into May 15 is whether any fresh negative surprise gives shorts a reason to rebuild — or whether the absence of a borrow-cost spike signals the market has little conviction either way.
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