Velo3D is flashing multiple lending-market warnings at once. Short interest has surged 57% in a month. Cost to borrow has more than doubled in a week. The borrow pool is nearly exhausted.
Short interest stands at 21.1% of free float. That is up 57% over the past month. One week ago it was 8.7% lower. This is not a slow drift — bears have built aggressively into a stock that fell 17.5% in a single session on April 27.
The timing is notable. Earnings are due May 8. The most recent print, in late March, sent the stock down 19.5% in one day and 28.9% over five days. Shorts who built positions in March are well in the money.
Cost to borrow reached 22.4% earlier this week. It now sits at 12.6%. But the bigger story is the direction: CTB was running at roughly 8.5%–9% throughout March. It is up 50% over the past month.
The lending pool is tight. With the borrow market at these levels, any further short-covering could accelerate quickly.
The ORTEX short score sits at 73.5 — ranking in the 2nd percentile for utilization and for short score among peers. Both are extreme readings.
The put/call ratio has collapsed. It stood at 1.05 in late March. It is now 0.24 — well below its 20-day mean of 0.43, and at a z-score of –1.63.
Options traders are positioning for upside, not further downside. That creates a tension with the elevated short interest. Either the options market is pricing a short squeeze, or it is anticipating a positive surprise at May 8 earnings.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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