Mobile-health Network Solutions enters this week with one of the more dramatic short-positioning reversals seen in a micro-cap name this year — and the borrow market tells the story plainly.
The defining feature of the past two weeks is the sheer speed of the short build and its equally sharp collapse. Short interest as a percentage of free float hit 61% on May 5, an extraordinary level for a stock with a market cap of barely $4.6 million. By May 12, that number had fallen to 4.1% — a drop of more than 85% in a single week. That is not a gradual unwinding; it is shorts covering fast, likely under duress. The stock fell 6.3% on May 12 and is down 3.7% on the week, but remains up 26% over the past month, a reminder that the covering pressure had been propping the price even as it faded.
The borrow market has been the clearest leading indicator here. Cost to borrow reached a peak above 315% annualised on May 6-7 — when short interest was still near its apex — before pulling back to around 179% by May 11. That is still deeply elevated relative to the sub-65% range where it spent all of April, and the 184% month-on-month increase underscores how aggressively lenders priced the squeeze risk at its height. Availability in the lending pool has loosened somewhat as shorts cover, consistent with a borrow market returning from extreme tightness toward something more functional — though at 179%, it remains far from normal. The ORTEX short score, which peaked above 81 last week, dropped sharply to 62.7 on May 12, confirming that the acute squeeze pressure has partially released.
What drove the initial pile-on remains unclear from the data available. MNDR has no analyst coverage, no meaningful institutional holders beyond a handful of named individuals who collectively own less than 20% of shares, and no news flow in the ORTEX system. The top registered holders — Tung Yeng Siaw and Pui Pui Teoh, each holding around 8.3% of shares — both added to positions as recently as March 18, but the builds predate the short spike and appear unconnected to it. There is no insider selling on record in the past 90 days, which removes one obvious catalyst for the short attack.
The earnings picture adds a relevant timing layer. MNDR's last three prints all produced negative one-day reactions, averaging roughly -5% on the day. The next event is flagged for June 10. The most recent result, in March, saw the stock fall nearly 4% on the day before recovering 8% over the following five sessions — a pattern suggesting that while earnings tend to land poorly at first, subsequent price action has at times been supportive. With shorts now substantially reduced and cost to borrow still punishingly high for anyone wanting to rebuild a position, the setup going into June is meaningfully different from the crowded short that existed just days ago.
The days-to-cover reading of 0.29 confirms that at current reduced short interest levels, the remaining shorts could exit quickly. What to watch next: whether the cost to borrow begins its retreat toward April's sub-65% range, signalling genuine normalisation, or whether it stabilises near current levels — which would imply residual demand for borrows and a more contested positioning picture heading into the June earnings date.
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