WIT has become one of the hardest stocks to borrow in the US market. Availability has collapsed to just 0.05% — meaning fewer than one share remains available for every 2,000 already lent out. That is the lowest reading on record.
The cost to borrow tells the same story. It has risen to 319.4% annualised, up 387% in a single week. A month ago, it sat at roughly 12%. The move is a near-25-fold increase in 30 days.
The lending market data, options positioning, and short score are all pointing the same way simultaneously.
The ORTEX short score has climbed from 65.0 on May 18 to 75.0 on May 29. That is a ten-point move in eleven days. The score aggregates borrow stress, short interest momentum, and related signals — a move of this magnitude in under two weeks is notable.
Options markets are registering it too. The put/call ratio hit 6.16 on June 1 — the highest in the past 52 weeks. That compares to a 20-day mean of 3.31. The reading is 4.2 standard deviations above average. Options traders are paying up for downside protection at a rate not seen all year.
Shorting is now structurally expensive. At 319% cost to borrow, a short position loses roughly 6% of its value per week from financing costs alone before any price move. That creates mechanical pressure on existing shorts to cover.
The stock has moved accordingly. WIT is up nearly 20% over the past week and close to 19% over the past month. The price closed at $2.41 on June 1.
Short interest in shares has continued rising despite the price action. Estimated short shares reached approximately 90.3 million as of May 29, up from 85.6 million a month earlier — an increase of around 8.5%.
Earnings are scheduled for July 13. The last two reports produced day-one declines of 1.4% and 3.5% respectively, with five-day moves of -5.1% and -10.6%. That event sits six weeks out. The borrow market, the options skew, and the short score are all now pricing in significant uncertainty well ahead of that date.
Data summary
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open WIT on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
